Super Smash Bros Brawl: The Brawlers' Chronicles
by Omegakiller446
Summary: What starts out as a simple vacation quickly goes wrong for the Smashers, and soon the fate of every dimension is at stake... Note: Contains OOC characters and several series crossovers
1. Introductory Chapter

Hello all and welcome to the introductory chapter of my fan-fiction " Super Smash Bros. Brawl: Brawler's Chronicles" before I put the first chapter up there are some things i'd like to state.

First and for-most, this is the first fan-fic i've ever done. Don't expect it to be perfect, in fact I can almost guarantee that it will have some errors in it, but hopefully i'll get better as time goes by. We'll see how that ends up rolling out.

Second, this entire story is based off of an online text-based Role-play I participated in (and I still am). The plot of this story, was originally thought up by a friend of mine, and i'm using it with his permission. Also all non-video game characters (custom made ones) are also used with the permission of their creators. All that will be shortened and repeated in the disclaimer of every chapter. If you'd like to join the RP I just mentioned, ask about it in a review or private message me, and i'll give you a link to it. Anyone is welcome to join.

Next, if you haven't noticed already I have grammar trouble. I tend to put alot of comma's in sentences (sometimes where a period or a semi-colon should go). I'll try my best to tone it down to a point where it isn't annoying, because i've gotten complaints about it before. Same thing goes for my spelling, while I generally don't have trouble with it I may make one or two typo's in a chapter. I ask that you please be tolerant with these two things as it's just the way I am.

Now i'd like to explain a little how this thing will work. It'll work similar to some other fan-fics i've seen on this site. At the beginning of every chapter there will be a character name at the top, that character is the one narrating that specific chapter. Although the majority of the chapters will be narrated by either Meta Knight or Vaati. Their will occasionally be chapters narrated by other characters, some major and some minor. Also, some character backgrounds, relationships, personalities and such have been tweaked to better suit a fan-fiction, and to match the RPing style of the person who used them. That means some characters sre OOC. Also, many characters who as of the time of this writing (8/30/07) haven't actually been confirmed to be in an Super Smash Brothers game (and some very likely won't ever be in one). Also at various points in the chapters you'll see a time and a date. I put these in to save confusion becouse later chapters will end up over-lapping other chapters unchronologically. It's kinda hard to explain but you'll see, trust me it'll make things less confusing.

Lastly I ask that you be patient with this fan-fic. I like to add alot of detail into everything I do, and it may get boring. I assure you this thing will have plenty of action, adventure, romance and some more elements (although those three are the most apparent). The first few chapters will likely be nothing but back-story, but i assure you it will heat up quickly.

Ok, so without further adieu. Please enjoy the first chapter of my fan-fiction. I'd appreaciate it if you'd leave a review, and all suggestions, criticism and the like are suggested and welcomed.


	2. Chapter 1

**disclaimer**: I don't own anything mentioned in this fan-fic, the plot and custom made chaarcters are used with the permission of their creators

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**Chapter 1.**

Meta Knight.

1:00 P.M. 6/10

I couldn't help but sigh as I walked down the street. Man today was going by so slowly... the whole week was, it seemed like an eternity since I left Dreamland, but I knew it had only been a week and a half. (I'm sure everyone back home is freaking out, wondering why I left) I thought as I continued walking. Everyone back on Popstar had wanted what he had, he was famous all around the world for his sword skill, he had been promoted to commander of Dedede's guard, and had very good income coming in. To a normal person things would have seemed perfect, but I'd grown tiried of it all

The money just hadn't been worth waiting hand and foot on that stuffy little penguin. All he ever did was complain about how hard it was ruling a country, when he never actually did anything but make his servants do things he's too lazy to do himself. It didn't bother me at first, fetch a glass of milk for him, run his bath water every now and then and in exchange be in charge of a massive army and be known and feared world-wide. Might have been a deal I would have liked if Dreamland ever went to war with anyone. The military and big weopons were there for looks, if an opposing army attacked they'd have conquered everything in a few hours. And eventually I grew bored of it all, I had the best fighting skills around and I couldn't prove it because there was noone to fight.

One day however Kirby had decided to "visit" the castle, if you could call barging in and attacking any guard that tried to stop him, visiting. But that was unimportant, Kirby talked about a place on a planet called Earth where you could go and fight other strong people in front of large audiances. Apparently it was quite popular or something, he called it "Super Smash Brothers", and it immidietly interested me. I could finally prove to the universe that I was the best there was. So one night, I just left... didn't say a word to anyone. I snuck out during the night, and took a ship to this planet Earth. Noone knew I had left, and noone likely knows where I am now, although that will change when Kirby gets called back here.

Anyways, it didn't take long to find information on this fighting contest, and apparently I had come just in time as they were accepting new members. I quickly applied and I was accepted by the end of the day. They said Kirby had once spoken of me, and recognised my name when I signed up, but it didn't matter all I cared about was the fact that now I would be getting the respect I deserved... that is once I'd won a few matches.

That was sort of how I ended up doing what i'm doing now, walking down the street near lunch-time on a particularly hot day. Before the fighting seoson started up again, it seemed all the participants were allowed to take a vacation together. This year two people offered to let them all come and stay at their mansion, and a letter was sent out to everyone on the roster including myself. Even though i've yet to be in a real match I figured I'd tag along and see how my future opponents acted around one another. Maybe try to figure out their fighting styles or something, basically this vacation was nothing but recon work for me.

The mansion was where I was heading now, all this reminiscing I'd been doing was passing the time, quite nicely. I was getting close to the mansion though so I decided to actually focus on walking down...whatever street this was...(hell I don't even know what the name of this city is, all these human cities look the same to me) I thought as I continued walking. Man it was hot... about 20 minutes later I finally came to the right address, and looked up at the mansion. I almost fell over when I saw it, it was huge. A mansion seemed like an inappropiate title. It was almost as big as Dedede's castle, there were 5 or 6 floors, and it was really wide. It looked as if it could hold more then 100 rooms inside of it.

I cautiously walked up the drive-way and into the entrance. The place looked even bigger on the inside. I glanced around what was obviously a foyer, but didn't see anyone...odd.. I'd have figured someone would be greeting us at the door, I guess this place wasn't as fancy as I thought earlier.

"Hello? is anyone here?"

I called out, a few seconds later a man came out of a near-by room...at least he looked like a man, he was really white, and looked like he was glowing. I figured he was an albino or something, because even his hair was white, even though he looked like he was 18 or 19 years old. Besides that he looked normal, taller then me but not exactly tall by human standards, and he looked like he kept in-shape.

He looked me over for a few seconds before finally saying "Hello there...um..why are you here?"

"I'm here for some sorta vacation...I'm a Smasher" I replied.

"Really? I don't recognise you" he said

"I'm new, just got accepted about a week ago...the letter said everyone on the roster was welcome, and that includes me...names Meta-knight, Meta for short" I replied, slightly irritated at him.

He turned around and picked up a clipboard, apparently one with all the Smasher's names on it because after reading it he said " Well your on here..so I guess your telling the truth, theres no picture by your name, but your name's there... so in that case welcome to my mansion, my names Ultima".

(There's supposed to be pictures by our names? well seeing as how I've only been a Smasher for a week, I suppose they didn't have time to get a photo of me) I thought.

Right after I thought that Ultima turned to face the doorway he entered from and said "Hey Mell, another one's here."

a female voice talked back from the room "Coming Ultima".

I finally decided to examine the entrance to this mansion, although I noticed someone else walk through the doorway out of the corner of my eye, probaly just that girl that had just spoken. For a few seconds I looked around...this one room really seemed huge, the ceiling was really high...looking at it I bet there aren't any more rooms right here on the upper floors. There were plenty of decorative plants and stuff and there wer- unfortunly that thought was stopped mid-way as I finally saw the girl who'd walked in... if you could call her a girl. I immidietly jumped back, drawing my sword, keeping ready at my side and level with my head, my common battle-pose.

"Ultima what the hell is that thing?!?!?!"

I stared at what I had prevously thought was a girl, although it did have a femine like shape, it was clearly not human. Although it had a human-like shape, it had scales all over it's body instead of skin, like some kind of reptile or something. It's eyes were black, and it's hair was red, but their were two horns sticking out of it's head. But they weren't straight and pointy like a demon's horns would be. Instead they were curved near the bottom and laid flat horizontally a little ways over the creature's head. It's hands were enlarged, like they were swollen or something, and had sharp claws on them instead of fingers. It also had a tail, dragging behind it on the floor. Yet it stood up straight like a human, and if this was the thing that had spoken before, talked like a human too.

Ultima, after seeing me get startled jumped in between me and the creature as if to protect it.

"What do you mean? what are you doing?" he said.

"What do you mean what do I mean? that things not human it's a monster!"

The creature seemed insulted after I said that, and stared at the ground.

"Well of course she's not human, i'm not either" Ultima said.

After hearing that statement I stared at Ultima as well as the creature, ready to attack them both if nesseccary. "What the hell is going on here?!" I said, now raising my voice.

"Master Hand didn't tell you? we're not humans, we're an alien race called the Ilynine, all the others already knew" Ultima said, the creature behind him still looking at the ground, not saying anything.

(Master Hand? oh, the guy running the show... I've yet to actually meet him in person, all the communication between the two of us so far was either done through his secretary or had to be submitted in paperwork, apparently they'd forgotten to inform me of this) I thought.

But before I could say anything Ultima spoke again "Please lower your weopon Meta, I assure you we're kind people, afterall we're letting all the Smashers stay in our mansion."

I thought on those words for a moments, and sheathed my sword again, although I kept my hand on the hilt, for a few minutes, incase these two were lieing. Ultima relaxed, and the creature continued looking at the ground, I felt sorry for it for some reoson, it looked odd...yet it had a sense of elegance about it

"I'm sorry... I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, your appearence just startled me...what's your name?" I asked after about a minute of silence

"...Mell... welcome to our mansion, please make yourself at home" the creature muttered in a female voice as she walked back into the room she came from. So I was right, this creature was female.

"Don't worry about her, she'll be ok in a few hours...your not the first person to call her a name" Ultima said, seemly sensing that I felt bad.

I chose not to reply, and after a few minutes he said "Anyways, make yourself at home, pick out a room for yourself any room, theres plenty of them, and your welcome to everything in the mansion" after that he too walked into the room Mell walked into.

1:35 P.M. 6/10

I decided to look around first, following Ultima into a a fairly large living room with a few other people in it. It seemed I'd been one of the earlier ones to arrive. After walking around the ground floor a little I decided to pick out a room, I wanted one on one of the upper floors so I walked up the staircase and began looking at all the different ones. Surprisingly every room was different in one way or another. I'd have thought with as many rooms as this place had they'd have run out of designs after a while. And everything was so neat and tidy... I wasn't used to staying in a place this clean. Eventually I decided on a room on the third floor, it was simple enough. Two single-person beds, a closet, and a window looking out into the also very tidy backyard of the mansion. The view was nice, I could see the entire yard, and a little of the woods behind the yard, I could even see a pond in them. I spent a few minutes settling in, which also meant dirtying the place up some...again this mansion was far too clean for my tastes.

After that I went back downstairs, and into the kitchen. I was thirsty from my walk to this place, and Ultima did say I was welcome to everything in the mansion...that included food and drinks. I opened up the fridge and was surprised at all the stuff. They had every kind of drink imaginable, water, juice milk, tea, soda of every kind...you name it and it was there. The same thing with the food...and it was all organized...geez these people even organized their food. After gaping for a few minutes I decided on a simple glass of water, I got some ice and filled the glass up and decided to walk back into the main living room.

2:00 P.M. 6/10

Apparently in the 20 minutes I had spent finding a room, more people had shown up, as there was now somewhere between 10-15 people in here compared to the 4 that were in here on my last visit. I took a chair over to a corner near the door going to the entrance and sat down, I took my mask off so I could drink my water, and layed it on the floor next to my chair. I hated being seen without my mask on but obviously I can't eat or drink with it on. For a while I just sat their taking sips every now and then and gazing at other people doing various activities. There was a blonde-haired girl in a pink dress sitting on a couch and watching some cooking show on a television, cooking bored me so I quickly continued looking around. Mell was talking to a blonde-haired boy in a green tunic, she seemed to be in a better mood...that made me feel better. After a while I noticed a man, leaning agaist the wall in the corner directly across from myself. Almost all of his body and face were covered in a cloak, so I cound't see very much besides his mouth. He seemed kinda mysterious, but I knew I probaly did too, as I had noticed some people eyeing me, so I continued looking around. My attention quickly turned to someone wearing a suit of red battle armor, an arm cannon attached to it. For once it was someone I had heard of, Samus Aran, known around the galaxy as a great bounty hunter. I never knew she was in this organization. She was talking with someone I didn't know. It was an animal actually, short with mostly black fur but had patches of red here and there. Odd thing was it was wearing a pair of red shoes, and it stood up straight like a human. I decided to watch them for a while. It seemed like they were having an ordinary conversation until Samus suddenly slapped the animal across the face with her arm cannon, knocking him to the floor, and stormed off angrily. I couldn't help but laugh, afterwards I wished I hadn't as apparently the animal heard me and walked over.

"Hiya Kirby" it said " Why'd you paint yourself blue? pink really was your color."

I sneered at him and said "I'm not Kirby... anyone even half stupid could figure that out."

"You look like Kirby... alot... well if your not Kirby then who are you?" the animal asked.

I sighed knowing this stupid animal wouldn't leave me alone if I told him to go away and finally said "If you must know my names Meta-knight... Meta for short"

"Oh, Kirby's talked about you before...he said your a grouch that only thinks about himself and loves to talk about how powerful he is."

That last statement got me angry...very angry.. "WHAT?!?!? I'LL KICK THAT LITTLE PUFFBALL'S ASS SO HARD WE COULD ROAST HIM AND EAT HIM AS A MARSHMELLOW!!!!" I said, probaly a little too loud as people stared at me afterwards.

"Hey chill out chill out... my names Shadow, Shadow the Hedgehog you new around here or something?" he said clearly wanting to change the subject.

"...yeah, just got accepted about a week ago, decided I'd come along on this vacation to meet some other members.." I replied, trying my hardest to calm down.

"I see, well I've been here for about a year, this is the second one of these vacation things I've been too Master Hand, almost always throws us a curve-ball with these things and I guess he wanted us to meet some aliens...still I thought he'd told everyone in advance, guess not though."

It seemed Ultima or Mell had told him about what happened. I didn't reply to that statement...after a minute of silence he said "do you always have outbursts like that?" he said, a joking smirk on his face.

"Yes" I said, a serious look on my face...I always have a serious look on my face.

"Oh...I see..." he said, obviously he had been expecting me to make a joke back.

There was more silence... after about 4 minutes he seemed ready to walk away, and talk to someone else. I considered letting him do just that... but having someone else on my side, probaly wouldn't hurt...I beleive humans call them "friends". Still there was no telling with this animal... he very well might do nothing but nag me all the time.

I finally decided to speak, just as Shadow turned around to walk away " So what was up with Samus? why'd she hit you like that?"

"Oh Samus, she digs me" he said with his smirk returning to his face, "Still man, that arm cannon hurts...and her kicks...and her missiles...and her bombs." It seemed that wasn't the first time he'd tried to woo Samus.

"why don't you try another girl...one that won't injure you" I said.

"Like who?" he replied.

I looked back at the girl watching the television, "How about her?" I said

"Already tried, she hit me with a frying pan...and a turnip...and an umbrella...and high heels." he replied.

I continued searching the room, the blonde-haired boy in the green tunic that had been prevously talking to Mell, was now talking to another blonde-haired girl. This one was wearing a much more formal looking dress...and her ears were pointy for some reoson.

Regardless I pointed to her and said "Well how about that one?"

" Tried her already too, she hit me with a fireball... and more magic...and more high heels...damn those things hurt." Shadow apparently didn't give up easily.

I thought for a second and said "Well how about Mell, she's technically a female" I took a few seconds to wonder what the children would look like, I got some very disgusting images from that.

"She's Ultima's girlfriend, so she's taken" Shadow said.

I hadn't known that, Ultima was probaly mad at me too for insulting his girlfriend, it seemed today was a good day for not telling me important things. I looked around the room again...that was all the women in here... as I looked around I saw that the cloaked person that had been in the corner was no longer in the room. He must have walked out while I was speaking with Shadow, ah well I kept looking around, there was some kinda turtle looking kid, drawing in a coloring book on the floor.

Not knowing what else to talk about I said "Who's the little runt over there?"

Shadow turned and looked at the creature, "Oh that's just one of Bowser's kids, I've heard he always brings his kids to these vacations...all 8 of them."

I'd heard of Bowser... he was one of the few competitors I actually knew something about.

"How come a giant demon turtle guy can get laid but I can't?" Shadow said.

"I guess noone wants to a hedgehog for a boyfriend", I said finally finishing my glass of water, I set the glass down on the ground by my chair and put my mask back on.

"I'm gonna go back up to my room, I'll see you later" I said as I stood up out of the chair "

Ok" Shadow said, walking away. I turned around and went back to the entrance, to go up the staircase to my floor.

As I passed by the entrance however, I heard the sound of a door opening and turned around. A girl was standing in the doorway, of the door going outside, she was about medium height...and kind of skinny. She was wearing an orange sleeveless shirt, and some green shorts, her midriff was showing. She had a belt looped a few times around her shorts, and something that looked like a pouch. She had on gloves, some armbands on both of her arms, and elbow pads. A pair of goggles were around her neck, dangling a little above her chest. She had blonde hair, I couldn't really tell the length of it, I guess it must be long, because she had it braided, not much at first but it got more and more braided as the length went on, laying behind her head on her back. The front of her hair was pinned up, probaly to keep it out of her eyes.

She looked at me for about a second before saying "Hi!" in a perky and cheerful voice.

"Ummmm... hi?" I said. "Hi!" the girl repeated "I've never seen you before, do you work here like a butler for the Smashers or something?"

" NO DAMN IT, I'M A SMASHER HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL PEOPLE?!?!" I yelled, I mean sure I'd only been in the program for about a week, and I hadn't been in a real match, but damn it being called a butler pissed me off, who did this girl think she was?

"Sorry, I didn't mean to make you mad...umm...well if your a Smasher what's your name?" the girl said. I was getting tiried of everyone wanting to get to know me.

"Meta-knight...Meta for short..." I half-said half-growled at her.

"Oh," she replied, "Hi Meta, i'm Rikku!" she said, her cheerful voice completely back. She obviously couldn't sense that I was still mad.

"That's nice" I said, not really caring, what her name was.

"I'm looking for someone, she's a fan of Super Smash Bros. and I figured she might have come by?" Rikku said.

I sighed "What does she look like?"

"Well", Rikku said, going into a long description of what this person looked like, I wasn't paying much attention since I didn't plan on looking for them anyway.

"Oh and her name's Yuna" Rikku finally finished.

"Fine, I'll look out for her" I lied, I had no intention of looking for her actually.

"Anything else" I said, an annoyed tone in my voice.

"Well I was kinda hoping to meet some of the Smashers myself" Rikku said, with a smile on her face.

(Great... a fan-girl...) " Their in there" I said, pointing to the room I'd just come out of "most of them still aren't here though."

"Ok, it was nice meeting you Meta!" Rikku said, dashing into the room.

"Whatever" I said back to her, as I turned to go up the stairs.

( Well that girl was annoying...she was too cheerful) I thought, as I went back up to my room to be alone. I prefered to be alone, maybe that was why I had negative thoughts about everyone here so far. One looks like a freak, one's a talking hedgehog, determined to hit on everything he can, and the other was so cheerful it was annoying. (Everyone here is a weirdo)...that was the only thought going through my mind, when I walked into my room and shut the door.

2:30 P.M. 6/10


	3. Chapter 2

**disclaimer: I don't own anything mentioned in this fan-fic. The plot it's self and the customm-made characters are used with permission**

_note: this chapter was written by my friend Chris, and co-written by me._

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**Chapter 2**

Vaati

11:30 P.M. 6/9

Wandering, trying to escape...for what has felt like years this is all I have been doing, trying to run from the hellish fate that awaits me from where I ran, trying so hard...memories burst into my head as I ran, filling me with initiative to keep running. I remember that I am anything but accepted in the land I fled, the land of Hyrule. There, I am known as the Wind Mage Vaati, or more accurately, Wind Demon.

I still remember all that's happened to me...my days as one of the tiny folk, the Minish. Back then, I was the apprentice of the elder, Ezlo. He taught me in the ways of simple magic but I craved for more. Sadly, he would not teach me. But I demanded power, so when Ezlo had gone out for business matters I seized my chance. I approached one of his creations, the wish-granting Minish Cap, and used it. I had no idea what would happen next, however. As soon as I made my wish, I was filled with a dark power, and I felt darkness itself mix with the blood that ran in my veins.

It was then that Ezlo discovered what had happened. No longer content with my meager lifestyle, and granted with a new form, a human one, I easily overpowered Ezlo. I left my village after having burned it and killed most of its residents, including my own mother and father. But it was not by choice that I did so. Having learned of what happened at Ezlo's house, the townsfolk formed an angry mob and charged me; they got what they deserved for having dared to cross me.

After a failed attempt at taking what I set out to get, the Light Force, I ended up being sealed in a prison, a prison inside the Four Sword. There I remained for centuries, until I was released by a shadow. Then I ended up joining forces with Ganondorf, the Gerudo King of Evil. He made me his apprentice, and trained me. Together we overtook Hyrule. But the boy, Link, came to defeat us. I fought him again, and it was a much closer fight this time. But as Link was about to deliver a finishing blow, Ganondorf left me for dead, to take his fall and he escaped, leaving me trapped all over again. I eventually broke out by myself, and fled Hyrule. It didn't take long for my escape to be noticed however, a couple of hours after I made my escape Hyrulian guards and Link himself, were hot on my heels. I ended up in a country I didn't know the name of. I had finally managed to put some distance between me and my pursuers. I couldn't risk stopping for a rest and giving them a chance to catch up.

I had made it into a city, and I was running along through alleyways if possible, but I ended up on the street for the most part. I had my cloak over my body, it covered up everything but my mouth. So any people who happened to see me would have no clue who I was. After a while my fatigue had finally caught up with me, I had been running for a few hours non-stop now and it was becoming painfully (literally) obvious I was going to have to stop soon. I looked up and saw a mansion in the distance. Wanting a place to stay for the night, even without permission, I walked towards it. My feet ached with the fatigue of running for so long without breaks. I was approaching it, when I saw a sign. It said something about a tournament of fighters, it was called "Super Smash Bros." Not paticulary interested, I stepped inside. Not seeing anyone, I cautiously walked around in case there was someone out to get me, when I saw a man in white...though it didn't appear to be a man. I felt what had driven me to act for a long time: An urge to kill. I wanted to spill his blood, to claim another life. It's all I've been used to, and I loved doing it. Yet I was able to restrain myself, as he spoke.

"Welcome, new guest." He said to me. Not wanting to start trouble, I softly said "Hello" back to him. He looked at me then took out a clipboard, and looked at me again. " Your here early I assume? what's your name?" I remained silent. He seemed to sense that I didn't want to give my name, so he checked the photos of people on the list and eventually looked at me again. "You don't seem to be on this list..." "What is this list you speak of?" I replied. "You see, this is a place for the Smashers to stay. A vacation place of sorts, you could call it." Curious, I slowly spoke again. "Smashers?" Seeing my interest, the man replied to me, "You must not be familiar with this. Smasher is a term for the people in the fighting tournament "Super Smash Brothers" they're supposed to be vacationing here starting tomorrow, and I assumed you were one of them... But you look like you need a place to stay...I suppose I can let you stay here anyway."

Thankful for the hospitality, I gave a slight bow to him. He bowed back and I turned to walk away. Settling into a room and locking it, I went into the restroom and set up a bath eventually sitting in the water. As I bathed, cleaning away the ache of traveling, I began to relax, and after draining the water, I immidietly got into bed and went to sleep.

1:50 P.M. 6/10

The following morning, I awoke and looked around my room. Since it was brighter, I saw that it was decorated very nicely, everything neat and orderly. There was even a mini fridge there for me. Feeling hungry, I grabbed a bottle of milk and two eggs and set a plate down. Frying the eggs in my hand, I cracked them open and began to eat, suddenly feeling just how hungry I was. I grabbed a muffin from a nearby basket and ate it too. Afterwards I glanced over at the clock, it was already early afternoon, I'd slept much later then I intended too. Not really bothered by this fact, I pulled my cloak over my face and walked out.

I ventured out of my room and went down to the foyer I had entered the previous night. Seeing the main kitchen, I went inside and saw the wine cooler. Feeling tempted, I grabbed a bottle and drank some. Once I was finished, I smashed the bottle and went back into the foyer. I stood in the corner leaning against the wall, I then noticed that there were more people around, who I assumed were the Smashers the man in white told me about.

I was looking around just to see who all was here. I didn't recognize any of them, to be honest. Because I was wrapped in my cloak, no one could get a glimpse of my face, which is what I wanted. Even if the man in white was kind to me, I couldn't trust anyone else, and I still didn't trust him very much. Looking around the room, I noticed a blue being, he was small, and circular. He had a cape on, along with gloves, and what looked like iron boots. There was an iron mask laying agaist the chair he was sitting in. He had a very serious facial expression on his face. I thought I saw him look at me, and I turned my face away. I looked back a few seconds later, and fortunly his attention had turned to something else. Looking around a bit more, I noticed a hedgehog, a rare sight in my country. What was even stranger, he stood up straight and wore red shoes. He seemed to be talking to an armored woman, who slapped him and walked off. I heard the blue being laugh, then the hedgehog approached him. Then my eyes glanced at the television, where I saw a princess watching it. Then I happened to glance over at 2 other beings. One was a woman, but with scales. Taking a closer look at the person she was talking to, my heart almost stopped.

I recognized the person she was talking to as the one I had been fleeing from, the hero of Hyrule, Link. Almost instantly, I broke into a cold sweat. I heard voices in my head, arguing against each other. One said to kill him, one said to run, both screamed into my brain. I decided to follow the advice of the second voice, and I ran out of the room in a hurry. I hid in a supposedly empty room, and locked the door. I sat against the wall for a long time, and I eventually looked out the door. Breathing a sigh of relief that Link hadn't followed me, I looked around the room and noticed that it was full of musical instruments.

Having nothing else to do with my time, I approached them. I saw a xylophone, an organ, even an entire set of wind instruments. I wasn't a master at music, but I knew quite a bit about it. Concentrating, I sent a wind going through the room making all the wind instruments start to play. Soothed by the sound, I eventually eased out of my former tension and sat down next to the harp. I ran my hand across it as the wind instruments stopped playing. It'd been a long time since I'd bothered with music, and it was nice to have some kind of hobby. Something in the corner caught my eye, which turned out to be a grand piano. Walking over to it and sitting on the bench, I began to play it, to calm myself down.

After being in there for a while, I left the room to explore the mansion more fully. I went upstairs up to the rooftop and sat on the edge looking out at the grounds, I was probaly up there a few hours just thinking. My thoughts drifted to Link, and how best to keep him off my back. Then my thoughts drifted towards the others...I longed to enter this "Super Smash Bros", longing to battle and feel the rush of killing again. But I needed to steady these thoughts, otherwise I'd be in over my head...luckily, I saw someone below me and I jumped down and walked beside him.

5:30 P.M. 6/10

The man was riding some sort of bird that walked upright, a yellow steed. He seemed to notice me, but did not say anything, he just kept riding. Reading his thoughts, I learned about who he was. His name was Ramza Beoulve, and he was a hero to his homeland Ivalice. He stopped his steed and turned to me pointing a sword at me. "Who are you, and why are you reading my thoughts?" Odd, most people couldn't tell when their thoughts were being read, even Link was unable to, I had used that fact to my advantage many times in the past. Knowing I wouldn't be able to lie my way out of this, I answered, "Sorry, I was just curious, is all." Keeping his sword pointed at me, he asked who I was again. Not wanting to answer, I kept silent and hoped he wouldn't pursue the matter. Ramza put his sword away but kept a hard stare at me, but not saying anything. He then said, "You look like a strong warrior. I look forward to battling you in the tournament." It seemed he thought I was a part of "Super Smash Bros." and it was probabaly best that he kept thinking that. "Indeed" I replied, I could feel the urge to kill rising inside of me again. This time was different though, I could picture him laying on the ground dead, a bloody hole through his body. I could see his blood all over the grass, and on the cold steel of my blade. And I could almost feel it run through my fingers...warm blood...so very warm. But I knew killing him would mean my cover would be blown. Link would come, and trap me back in that hellish abyss of a prison, where I would slowly go insane...so very slowly. That thought entering my head, was all that kept me from killing this man right here. He kept riding his steed towards the mansion, up to the front door. It seemed he'd decided agaist continueing our conversation. When he got near the mansion he hopped off his animal, which obedietly stayed in the yard, and grazed. He turned to me and nodded his head, and walked into the mansion. Not really having anything else to do I decided to follow him inside. The man in white saw Ramza, and walked over picking up that clipboard again. The two of them talked for a while, but I kept on walking, heading for my room not paticulary interested in what they were saying. Before I reached my room however, someone walked out of a room, and came up to me. Looking at the person, I remembered seeing her in the foyer, it was the girl with scales all over her.

"Hello, Ultima told me about you, are you enjoying your stay?" she said. "Yes, yes I am...thank you for letting me stay here" I replied, softly. "No problem, you can stay for a little while longer, your not the only non-Smasher staying here" she said "but is the cloak really nesseccary?". "Yes it is, I'd rather people not see what I look like for personel reosons" I replied. "Oh come on, it's ok to take it off, you'll be safe here" she said. (oh if you only knew...) I thought, thinking of Link's reaction if he found out I was here, "I told you I'd rather not" I finally said. "Fine...well at least tell me your name, I promise I won't tell anyone else since you seem so secretive about everything" the girl said. I thought about it for a while, she did seem kind of trustworthy and nice... "Vaati...my name's Vaati...please don't tell anyone" I said, after a few minutes. "Hi Vaati, my name's Mell" she said. "Shhhh don't say that so loud...bad things will happen if certain people find out my name" I said, now regretting that I told her in the first place. (what the hell was I thinking?) I thought. "Fine, fine" Mell said "Wanna talk more in the living room?" I walked over and glanced in the door-way, I didn't see Link anywhere. "Sure...why not..." I said, motioning for her to follow me in the room.

Mell seemed like a very kind and gentle person. She had a kind of aura about her that just kinda told you you could trust her. But I could tell...I could sense it...there was something beneath all that. Dark energy was gathering inside of her, and that excited me. I wasn't being so honest with Mell because I thought she was trustworthy, I was doing it because maybe, just maybe she would be hated for her dark energy when it finally flourished. Then maybe I'd finally have an ally, someone to fight with me and travel with. Sure I suppose it is an awful lot of "maybe's" but I didn't care, my heart jumped at the thought of not ebing alone anymore, and that was what was driving me to stay with her for the time being. So that was that, we walked into the living room, and she bagan talking again, about her race, which apparently she wasn't human but I'd already figured that. She talked about her old friends that she'd left on her home planet, and things she liked about Earth. I occasionally responded with a blank statement or two, enogh to keep her talking. It wouldn't take much longer for that dark energy to overflow...and I was waiting for it...

5:45 P.M. 6/10

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**good news, something is actually going to happen in the next chapter, I promise. Until then, leave a review and let us know how we're doing. Criticism is accepted.**


	4. Chapter 3

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything mentioned in this fan-fic, the plot and custom characters are used with permission.**

_NOTE: if you can't tell, I changed the style of the writing some due to some complaints I got. PLEASE contact me and let me know if you prefer the way this chapter is written over he way the past two have been written, so I know whether or not to make the change permanent. Also give a shout-out to my friend Jesse. He revised this chapter, and he's a whizz at English stuff, so that equals NON-SUCKISH GRAMMAR AND SPELLING FOR ALL! . Anyways ENJOY!_

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Chapter 3

Meta Knight

6:00 P.M. 6/10

I stayed in my room for a few hours just thinking about how I was going to make it through this vacation without going insane, considering all the people that were here with me. (Why don't I ever end up with normal people?) I thought. I glanced at the clock to find it was already 6:00 P.M.; it would be time to eat dinner shortly, so I decided to walk out of my room and head back down to the main living room to wait on the food. The mansion was bustling with people now; there were too many people walking around now than I felt like counting. Although, I estimated that there were nearly 40 or 50.

As I was walking towards the staircase to go back down to the first floor, I happened to pass by Kirby. His eyes widened nice and big when he saw me, but he said nothing as I walked by him. I couldn't help but laugh in my head when I saw the look of surprise on his face. (It seems the puffball finally made it to the party) I thought. But I didn't really care that someone finally knew where I was. I was sure Kirby would go home to Dreamland and tell Dedede, but he couldn't force me to come back and I didn't plan on going back any time in the near future. After that little distraction, I stepped down the staircase and into the main living room.

There were less people then I expected, but there were more than when I had previously been here. I glanced around the room again, a man in blue overalls and a red shirt was talking to the girl who'd previously been watching the TV. The hedgehog who talked to me earlier was speaking with a man in a blue shirt, his blonde hair tied back into a pony-tail and a sword sheathed by his side. I saw the cloaked man from before again, too; this time though, he was speaking with Mell. His posture made him seem sort of uneasy, but then again how comfortable can a guy be when he's around an alien? There were many more people standing around and talking but I didn't get a chance to look at them more closely because I saw someone running towards me out of the corner of my eye. I turned to see who it was to find the girl who'd spoken to me earlier.

"Hiya Meta" she said, her cheerful voice immediately irritating me.

"Hi...ummm..." I thought for a moment. "Rikku," I finally said. (Odd,) I thought, (usually people's names don't come to me that quickly.)

"Where'd you go? I thought you followed me in here but I turned around and didn't see you" Rikku said.

"I went back up to my room" I replied.

"Why?" she immediately asked.

"Because I wanted to be alone" I said.

"How come?" she replied.

"Because people annoy me," I said bluntly. (Why hasn't this girl been kicked out by now?) I thought; she was already annoying me and we'd only been talking for about a minute.

"Hey how come you always walk around with that mask on?" Rikku asked me.

I sighed and said, "Because people tend to mistake me for someone else, and it angers me very much."

"I wanna see, I wanna see!" Rikku said, tugging at my mask.

"HEY, STOP IT!" I came close to yelling that but managed to keep it in "raised voice" status. It didn't stop her from pulling at my mask though.

"You've got me curious. I wanna see!" she said. I got an urge to shove her away and say some inappropriate words, but decided against it.

In the end, she succeeded in pulling it off, and of course the first thing she said was "Hey, you look like Kirby!"

I snatched my mask back from her, and put it back on. I'd finally lost my temper. "THAT'S WHAT I MEANT! SHEEZ, DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW IRRITATING YOU ARE!!! HOW THE HELL DO PEOPLE STAND TO BE AROUND YOU!!" I was going to say more but people were staring at me. I hated being the center of attention for the wrong reasons, so instead of continuing, I stormed off instead.

I walked across the room, with people still staring at me. I didn't bother to look back at Rikku; I didn't need to know what the look on her face was right now. Someone tapped me on the shoulder before I made into the kitchen; however, I turned around to find Mell, the cloaked man still close to her.

"What was that all about!?!" she said. She seemed angry.

"What!?! She annoys me!" I snapped back.

"So!?! That's no reason to yell at people!! You barely know anyone here!" she said.

"So? I know all I need to know: that these people are all annoying" I again snapped back.

"It's people like you that make this universe the way it is now!" she said. Her voice was rising, and she was getting so mad her scales were turning purple. "This universe doesn't deserve its freedom, ours is struggling to survive and all you people think about is yourselves! None of you deserve what you have, NONE OF YOU!" Mell was yelling now. Something was wrong, not only was she now purple, her eyes were getting darker. I heard the cloaked man laugh, and glanced over at him, he was taking his cloak off.

He was about average height and weight, nothing special there. His skin, however, was a very pale purple color, and his hair seemed a light purple too. It was also long for a guy; it fell in front of his face but only on one side, the back fell on his neck. His eyes were a bright reddish color, one which I'd never seen a human have before. He had a scar that went across one of his eyeballs too. The clothes he was wearing looked rather strange; they were almost all purple: a purple hat with a red gem in the center of the brim that was too big, and tipped over the back of his head over his hair, a purple robe, and white-ish purple-ish pants on under the robe.

I glanced back over at Mell. Her entire body was purple, and her eyes were even darker. That couldn't be good. Other people had taken notice, and it seemed word had spread to Ultima rather quickly, because he came bursting into the room.

"Mell, what the hell's the matter with you? You're scaring everyone!" Ultima said.

Mell turned around to look at him and said rather darkly, "I'm afraid Mell is no longer with you all...I've taken over her body. You see that little display just now made Mell so angry that she wanted to force the whole universe to change its ways. And I've been living in her body as a parasite for so long, I couldn't stand to see her hurt, so I think I'll grant her that wish...just through a different method."

"You...you're not Mell... Get out of her mind and her body now before I force you!" Ultima said. His voice was ringing through the entire room; everyone had gotten quiet. Ultima rose into the air, flying. (How the hell did he do that!?! He doesn't have any wings!) I thought, but I could do nothing but ponder.

"I wouldn't if I were you. This is still Mell's body, and you know she'll feel any pain I feel...but you're right…I'm not Mell…Call me...well...hmm...call me Mellora!" She said with an evil grin.

"What!?!...no...she's right...I can't attack Mell...I can't..." Ultima said.

It seemed he didn't hear anything past the "you hurt me you hurt Mell" part of Mellora's speech. Ultima clutched his head and lowered back onto the ground; he fell on his knees, and started shaking violently as if having a mental breakdown.

"Well now that he's out of the way, it's time for a little fun..." Mellora said.

She raised her hand and gestured towards an empty part of the room. Almost immediately, a black portal opened up and a monster stepped out. It was tall, taller then your average human and it was completely black. It didn't really have much of a face, there was no mouth and the eyes were so small and dark that they blended in with the creature's skin and made them hard to see at all. There was some kind of stone mask above their face, and above that a few long strands of black hair came out and over the monster's back. The monster was hunched over, walking with the help of its hands, like a gorilla. There were long sharp claws on each of its hands, and its feet looked like they could crush someone easily. Mellora quickly made the same gesture in several more spots around the room, and even more of the monsters came out, sometimes 5 or 10 coming out of the same portal at once.

"Now my pets, attack and kill them all!" Mellora said, laughing.

(Heh...finally some fun,) I thought, going into my battle-pose. Now everyone would see how powerful I was first-hand, something I'd wanted to happen for a while. But I had no intention of fighting these stupid doll monsters, oh no. I intended to take out Mellora; sure Ultima had trouble coping with slaying her, but I wouldn't. Better yet, it seemed she'd forgotten I was here, she was so caught up in her long-winded speech on how evil she was that she forgot her assassin was right behind her. I raised my sword up to strike her in the back, and quickly swung it downward towards her. Out of nowhere however, a katana of some sort came down on my blade and knocked it out of range. I quickly jumped back, expecting a second strike, and looked at the person who'd stopped me, to find the man who'd been previously wearing the cloak gazing at me with those blood-red eyes of his.

"I've waited too long for a chance like this, and your not going to ruin it little warrior" the man said. Mellora turned back around to look at us.

"Ah yes, the little annoying thing...I'd forgotten you were there..." she turned to face the purple man, "You, on the other hand, don't seem to mean me any harm."

"Yes...I could sense you inside of Mell, and thought we could be allies" the man replied.

I couldn't believe it...this man was a traitor! I was so angry I was about to bust a blood vessel, and readied myself to attack the both of them. Before I could, however, I saw a claw coming towards me out of the corner of my eye and I had side-stepped just in time to dodge it; and I looked up at the monster that it belonged to. At that moment I snapped back to the reality that there were monsters all over the place now. Almost everyone else had already begun battling them, but they were still pouring out of portals in the room. (Humph, maybe I could use a warm-up after all,) I thought. Besides, some people seemed to be having trouble already.

Without a second thought I jumped up in the air and sent a fatal slice at the throat of the monster that had just attacked me. If it had a mouth it would have screamed, but alas it could only fall to the ground bleeding. That was one down, but there would soon be more. I saw another monster attacking a moustached man, and I jumped on its back, stabbing my sword into its head.

"Thank-a you" I heard the man say, and he looked around for another target.

I'd already found mine; I hopped off the now-dead carcass I was on top of and charged at another one, delivering several swift slashes across its chest. It quickly fell to the ground, severely injured. Another monster decided to attack me, swinging its claws towards me. I flipped over its attack and over the monster itself and thrust my sword into the creature's back, bringing it down. (This is just plain too easy,) I thought; the monsters were tall and lumbering but they were far too slow to keep up with me. I was about to lunge at another monster, but I happened to see a missile coming at me, barely seeing it in time to dodge it. I ducked myself down low and it flew over my head exploding against a wall.

"Sorry," I heard a voice say, looking up to see Samus Aran again, firing at monsters. I finally took the time to see how the fight was going for everyone else.

The first thing I noticed was that the room was wrecked: the furniture and decorations and such were destroyed. The couch had several large scratch marks in it. The TV had a gaping hole in the center, probably from a stab attempt. Parts of the walls and floor were red and black, from the blood of the monsters and some of the other Smashers I guess. All in all the room just seemed pitiful; it was going to be hard cleaning up the mess from this fight. But that was Ultima's concern, not mine, so I prepared to jump back into the battle. I charged, leaped into air, over another monster, quickly turning around and dealing a blow to its throat. I looked for my next target, and happened to see one close to me fighting someone else. I was shocked however at who that someone else was, by some stroke of some kind of luck (I wasn't sure if it was good or bad) I'd ended up near her. I ended up near Rikku.

She was fighting with two very small weapons that kind of looked like a cross between a small sword and a dagger. There were circles for hilts, with a bar going across the center for the wielder to hold them with. Near one end, the circle stretched out into the actual blade of the weapon. I decided to watch and see how she'd do. The monster she was fighting was giving her trouble, swiping at her over and over continuously. She didn't have many good moments to get in hits; the monster made a high swipe and she ducked underneath it and landed a low slash, bring the monster on its knees but not killing it. It swiped at her again, but she jumped backwards and then forwards again with another slash, this time to the monster's head and chest. The monster still wasn't dead but it was wounded to the point where it could no longer fight and would bleed to death shortly.

"Shouldn't you be hiding or something?" I finally said now that she was no longer occupied.

She turned to look at me and said, "I'll be fine..." her cheerful tone gone.

I was going to say something else but a group of monsters was coming at the two of us. (Great... these damn things are irritating me...) I thought, getting back into my battle position. I saw Rikku reach into the pockets of one of the pouches around her waist and pull out a metal object. She yanked at the top of it and lobbed it towards the group of monsters before I even had time to see what it was. It exploded pretty quickly, and I finally figured out what it was. (Grenades?!? What the hell is a girl like her doing with grenades?!?) I thought. The group of monsters were gone, bits and pieces of them lying around near where the explosion happened. In a flash Rikku had already lobbed another one towards some more beasts. It was clear she had this covered, I could move on to bigger prey at long last. I glanced over at where Mellora was. She was just watching the battle unfold in front of her, an evil smirk on her face. But I wasn't concerned about her, oh no, I was looked at the purple-skinned man standing beside her. He was eyeing me, like he'd been watching me this whole time. He was a traitor to everyone here and I intended to make him pay for it!

He seemed to be able to tell what I was about to do, as he began walking towards me holding his katana by his side. I charged forward, my sword in front and rushed him with a single powerful slash. He brought his katana in front of him, putting an equal amount of strength into it, and stopped my charge dead in its tracks. I hopped back, and slashed forward again. He blocked yet again, and pushed forward in an attempt to knock me off my feet; it didn't have the effect he was looking for but I did stumble a little. He continued regardless bringing his katana down towards me, but I recovered too quickly, and hopped backwards again. His blade slammed onto the floor, and I stepped forward quickly, placing my foot on top of the man's sword and placing my body weight on it trying to keep it down. I thought I had him, but he raised his sword up with amazing strength, sending me off of it, but I managed to flip mid-air in time to land back on my feet. (Heh, this guy's not like those monsters...he actually knows what he's doing...) I thought as I prepared for my next attack.

I raised my sword and charged him another time. I knew that attacking him head-on wouldn't get me very far. I was going to have to pull a trick or two and I had some ideas on how to do it. I got close to him and made it look like I was about to slash forward, he fell for it and put his sword up to block. I immediately hit the floor and swerved to the side, going around him and turning around at the same time, giving me a clear strike. I dashed forward to send a slash into his back, but pulled an amazingly quick turn-around and blocked it. (How does this guy do all this!?!) I thought, I couldn't believe how this man could do all of these feats. He slashed towards me again but I managed to block it. I still had one trick left, one I knew he wouldn't see coming. I hopped backwards and concentrated on my back. Almost immediately two large bat-like wings grew out, but I kept them behind my back so the man wouldn't see. I began running towards him again feigning another average charge. When I got close, I flared my wings out, and took off, flying over his shoulder and turning around quickly. It'd worked. I'd taken him by surprise. I flew down towards his back ready to end this battle even if he could manage to turn around in time he couldn't get his sword in the right position to block me. He turned around to look up at me and quickly raised his hand up to his face, the palm facing towards me. I thought it was just a futile attempt to defend himself but a very strong gust of wind suddenly hit me. I couldn't fight it and I got sent across the room and smacked the wall. I got back up to my foot and looked at him again. He was just standing there looking at me still with those blood-red eyes of his. They longed for blood, not just mine but everyone's. This man was not just a traitor, he was a psychopath. I prepared another attack when I saw a flash of orange go by near the man. (Oh no...please no...) I thought. It was Rikku...she'd jumped at the man and slashed at him. By some miracle he'd been too focused on me to notice her, he had a small scratch of blood running down his face.

I could tell he was angry. He turned to look at her and raised his sword at his side again. I listened as closely as I could and heard him say, "Why do you defend the one who insulted you earlier?"

Oh no, I knew what was about to happen. I flapped my wings a few times and took off as fast as I could at him. Rikku opened her mouth to answer him...and dropped her guard. I sped as fast as I could but I wasn't going to be able to make it in time. The man seized his chance and struck, his distraction had worked. Rikku fell to the ground, a long and bloody slash mark across her stomach. It had cut through her shirt and fairly deep through her skin. It looked like it could be fatal. Almost a second later, the man turned back to me and blocked as I rammed him head-on. He tried to counter me, but I'd pushed him back and I followed up with several quick slashes over and over again. It took all he had to keep blocking me, and he was being forced backwards. Soon he would hit a wall and then...it would be over, he would only be able to hold me off for so long before he would tire and I would strike a fatal blow. But I couldn't help but look back at Rikku: she was unconscious from the attack and just kind of laid there a bloody mess. She would bleed to death by the end of the hour if no one intervened. I could help her now, and she'd probably make it...but if I did it would mean letting this bastard live too. I instantly decided to finish him and hope for the best for her, so I kept on attacking the man pushing him backwards more. But a feeling of guilt came over me quickly. I couldn't just leave her there to die, it wouldn't be right...but letting this traitor live wouldn't be right either. (No, I can't leave her there...I'm going back,) I thought. I paused briefly on my assault on the man and dashed over to where Rikku was laying. I picked her up rather fast, putting one hand under her knees, and the other on her back, close to the top of her head. I would need a place to treat her...not thinking of any better a spot I decided on my bedroom and made a break for the entrance. I glanced backwards to see the purple man chasing after me. I wouldn't be able to treat Rikku very well if he continued attacking. Out of nowhere however I saw three arrows whizz through the air at the purple man. I looked back to see him roll to the side, and glanced at the direction the arrows came from. The blond boy in the green tunic from earlier today stepped out, an odd-looking sword in his hand.

"Vaati!" the boy screamed as he stared at the purple man.

(Vaati, eh? So that's his name...) I thought. I wouldn't be forgetting it anytime soon but that wasn't important. I had just been given my way out, and I dashed into the entrance and started climbing the stairs.

6:30 P.M. 6/10

I was dashing up the staircase, as quick as I could. I had little time to waste; a single minute could decide whether or not Rikku would make it. Finally I emerged from the staircase on the third floor where my room was. To my surprise, there were people battling Mellora's monsters up here as well. It seemed she'd thought to spread them around the mansion and not just in one spot. Regardless I began running in the direction of my room, going around monsters whenever necessary. One, it seemed, had gotten by my vision. I soon saw a claw coming down towards me. While I was carrying Rikku there was no way I'd be able to dodge it in time. I braced myself for the blow and closed my eyes. Instead of feeling claws across my face however, all I felt was a few...embers? I looked up to see there was a massive flaming hole in the side of the monster. Standing next to it was Kirby, with a headdress of fire on top of his head. 'Where the hell did he find something to eat that gave him that power?' I wondered, but I said nothing. Kirby nodded his head towards me and dashed down the hall in the opposite direction. I continued towards my room, almost throwing the door off of its hinges as I entered.

I laid Rikku on top of my bed, and began thinking. A friend of mine was a decent medic and had taught me a few things. I was definitely no substitute for a real doctor but I could handle things like broken bones and flesh wounds. I was praying at the moment that that would be enough. I looked around for something to work with; there weren't exactly medical supplies in a specific spot in a common bedroom. I walked over to the curtain in front of the window and slashed off some of it with my sword. I took it back over to Rikku and wrapped the wound up so she wouldn't lose so much blood. The best thing around I had to clean up the blood all over her ended up being a box of Kleenex's, but it was better than nothing, I suppose. I got most of the blood off of her body after using up the whole box, and tossed them all to the ground. I opened up the curtain cloth on Rikku to check on the wound. It was still bleeding rather badly; the wound was going to have to be closed. This was going to be hard... I looked around for something to stitch the wound up with, at least for a little while until she could see a real doctor. There was some dental floss in the bathroom...and a pen was lying on a desk by the bed. It was an absurd idea, but I didn't have a better one, so I slowly began poking through parts of Rikku's skin and running the floss through, over and over again. Eventually I had it close enough where I could re-wrap the wound, and it would likely stop bleeding. Chances are the second she regained consciousness, and moved, it would come loose again but for now it might work. I wrapped the wound back up and stepped back to look her over again. (I think I've done all I can do, considering the circumstances...) I thought, 'I should probably be getting back to the battle now...' I didn't move an inch. I just stood there staying at her on the bed. 'She's pretty...I guess...for a human girl... I can't leave her here by herself unprotected… What if one of those monsters found her? Or worse yet that purple guy Vaati?'

I'll have to find someone to stay here and protect her...but who? (Who do I know here?) I thought. There was Samus...but she was an intergalatic bounty hunter who almost accidentally blew my head off 25 minutes ago. There was Bowser...but he had 8 kids and no wife, and there was an unconscious girl here. Besides I didn't even know where he was, anyways he was out too. Mell was obviously out of the question, and last I checked Ultima was having a mental breakdown. There was no way in hell I was asking Kirby for help, he'd already saved me once. I wasn't going to let him do it again. (There's got to be someone else...come on think...AH THE HEDGEHOG, the talking one! He was a pervert, but he'd likely keep his distance, and he's the only choice I have left...but what was his name?) I thought long and hard. (It was something to do with darkness...darkness...dark...shadow...SHADOW! That was it!) I finally remembered, I also remembered he had been on the first floor before Mellora's attack. He'd likely still be there now, so I dashed out the doorway and ran back to the stairs, dashing down them.

7:05 P.M. 6/10

I made it back down to the first floor pretty quick. When I was at the top of the staircase I glanced down. Fortunately, he was right in front of the staircase, battling one of Mellora's monsters, which he dispatched rather quickly.

"Shadow!" I called out.

He turned to look at me, and in a blink of an eye he disappeared and I felt a weight on my head. I looked up to see Shadow staring back down at me with that smirk on his face that he always had.

"You called, Mr. Grumpykins?" he asked.

"How did you do that!?!" I asked.

"Oh well you see, it's called the Chaos Control. I've always been able to do it but I used to need a special jewel to be able to pull it off. My body got so used to it though that now I can do it without one. It really is useful, this one time I -"

I chose to interrupt him there. I'd already gotten the answer to the question I asked. "Whatever, just come on, I need you to do something!" I said. I grabbed him and started dragging him back up the staircase as I ran.

"Ow! Hey, hey! You don't have to hurt me," Shadow said. I didn't stop, until we made it back to the third floor.

"Just shut up and come on!" I said tossing him back on his feet and motioning for him to follow me as I ran back to my room.

The two of us dashed into the room. "Ok, I assume we're here, now what the hell do you need my help for?" Shadow said.

I glanced over to the bed, thank god Rikku was still intact. I pointed over to her and said "I need you to stay here and make sure nothing happens to her!" I said.

"Why? I thought you didn't like her, you were yelling at her earlier," he replied.

"Just shut up and do it, it's not like you won't enjoy the company" I said back, "Besides I need to get back down there and finish the fight already".

Shadow looked at me for a few seconds and then looked at Rikku for many more seconds then he looked at me. "...Fine...I'll do it," he finally said.

I didn't even take the time to make another statement. I dashed back out into the hallway and down the staircase for what felt like the umpteenth time today. It was then that I noticed I still had my wings out, I was sure they had surprised Shadow and some other people but I'd forgotten they were there in the panic. Figuring it'd be faster, I began flying down the staircase instead, landing on the first floor in my battle-pose. I looked around and saw...well...nothing.

7:15 P.M. 6/10

There were no monsters around. There were no people around. There was……nothing. I dashed into the Living room, there were people here but all the monsters had vanished. Some people were bruised; others were bloody, even more seemed perfectly unharmed. They were all staring at the center of the room, I followed their gazes to see Ultima holding Mellora, only she was red again, and not completely purple. I dashed forward with my sword drawn, but someone grabbed me before I made it there. I turned around to see Samus again.

"Hold it right there puffball, she's fine now. Mell got control of herself again and the monsters vanished, the parasite Mellora is gone," she said.

Ignoring the name I'd been called at the moment I couldn't help but ask, "What about the purple-skinned guy? What happened to him?"

"He freaked out on Link and got away a little while after, we don't know where he is now" Samus replied, placing me back down on the ground. I looked back at Ultima and Mell.

Ultima stood back up and said, "I'm sorry this happened, everyone. Things should be fine now. There should still be some cooked food in the kitchen, you can all help yourselves".

Everyone seemed to be ok about the whole ordeal now. Everyone but me, that is. I didn't trust Mell anymore or much of anybody for that matter. I'd lost my appetite, but I walked into the kitchen to get some food for Shadow. I would need him to keep guarding Rikku till nighttime, and I was sure he'd get hungry sooner or later. I just grabbed the first things I saw: some fried chicken, mashed potatoes, rice and some corn. I headed back out of the kitchen to go back to my room, but turned back at the last minute and decided to fix a second plate. I took the two plates of food back up to my room. I set one down on the nightstand next to the bed, and looked over at Rikku. She was still unconscious, but my make-shift treatment had seemed to hold up so far. I looked over at Shadow, who'd taken a seat on the floor across the bed.

"Well?" he asked.

"The fight's over, Mell's back to normal," I replied.

He stood up and said, "Oh I see, well I guess I can go ahead and leave then." He started walking out.

"Actually I need you to keep watching her, for a little while longer while I go do...something," I said. I intended to go hunt Vaati down, but he was a traitor to the Smasher's and there could be more. I'd feel better if I knew someone was watching her.

Shadow sighed and said, "I guess so...but hurry up!" He sat back down.

I set the last plate of food next to him and said, "That's for you. The plate on the nightstand is for Rikku when she wakes up".

"Yeah, yeah," he said back in a not caring tone.

I walked over to the door, and turned back to stare at Rikku again. (Because of you, I lost my chance to prove to everyone how strong I was in battle... I missed the only fun I'll probably ever have on this damn vacation...) I thought. Normally I'd have been angry...but I wasn't for some reason...I shrugged it off and stepped outside, to start my search.

7:30 P.M. 6/10

---

So yeah, it's my first action sequeance that I've ever written. I apologise if it seemed a little odd. Anyways, let me know how you all liked it.

Oh and also I'd like to comment on the now obvious pairing of Meta Knight and Rikku. Yes it is a crack pairing (about as crack-filled as a pairing gets) we're all away of this fact. But I got accustomed to the pairing, and so did others. And now some people actually support the pairing. So if it weirds you out, I'm sorry,take a few days to get used to it.


	5. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I hope your not stupid enough to think that I own anything mentioned in this fan-fic. The plot, and all custom-made characters are used with the permission of their creators.**

_Note: This chapter was written by my buddy Chris, and co-written by me! Also, my non-grammar suck-a-fying friend was busy this week. So this chapter contains all the spelling errors and grammar mistakes that you all have come to probabaly hate me for by now . ENOY!_

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Chapter 4

Vaati

6:05 P.M. 6/10

It was late afternoon and I was still talking with the woman, Mell. I wasn't paticulary interested in what she had to say, to be honest, I was just waiting for the dark energy, and I had nothing better to do that wouldn't blow my cover. It had seemed like almost a half hour since we started the conversation. I heard rising voices, so I looked up. I saw the blue warrior from earlier talking with a woman that looked to be in her late teens. He started raising his voice against her, then she took off the iron mask he was wearing and said something about him resembling a Kirby. This seemed to anger the litle blue thing as he began yelling at her in a loud voice that made everyone stare. I glanced at Mell, but she wasn't there anymore. I looked around and saw her in front of the blue being, scolding him. They began to argue, each raising their voices, then Mell began screaming at him, and glowing purple.

I smiled with glee. This was what I was waiting for. I watched her begin to transform, and laughed as I finally took my cloak off, there was no need to conceal my identity any longer. I saw the man in white from the night before run up and try to stop her, but it was too late, much too late. I heard her saying something about changing the universe and whatnot, but wasn't really paying attention. All these powerful evil beings were the same to me, they all wanted world domination, or world destruction. She renamed herself Mellora, after saying some things to the man in white. I noticed the man in white fall down on the ground holding his head in pain, then I saw Mellora making dark rifts in the mansion, which out of them climbed mindless shadow beasts, puppets of their master. I watched them circle around everyone in the room, including me. But for some reason, the ones that were near me didn't attack, even though Mellora had instructed for them to kill everyone. They seemed to somehow know I was on their side. It was then that, our of the corner of my eye, I saw the blue being charge at Mellora. She didn't even realise he was there, if the blow connected, she'd be finished I knew that if she was taken out, there would be no chance for me to have an ally, and I intercepted him. Drawing the katana I had forged myself recently, I deflected his attack. Jumping back, he looked at me, but then I heard Mellora speak before I could react.

"Ah, yes, the little annoying thing...I'd forgotten you were there..." She then turned to me looking me in the eyes. "You, on the other hand, don't seem to mean me any harm."

Nodding, I replied "Yes...I could sense you inside of Mell, and I thought we could be allies."

Hearing those words, the blue being showed much anger. I finally took the time to read his mind, and learned his name, Meta Knight, he looked as if he was about to attack but went after some of Mellora's pets instead. I stood beside Mellora, and watched the carnage unfold before us. Everyone was battling the shadow beasts, Meta Knight in paticular. He seemed to be doing the best out of all of the smashers. Glancing around, unaffected by the attacks, I watched Meta's progress. He saved some of the other smashers. Attacking a shadow beast and killing it, he rescued someone called Mario, then he took off attacking more. I saw a projectile fly at him, then looked around to see what fired it. It turned out to be the armored woman from before, Samus Aran, who was firing off more projectiles. Looking around the room, I saw it almost completely destroyed, and the floor covered in blood. I felt a twinge of guilt, since I had been offered houseroom here yet I did nothing to protect it. It passed rather quickly however, had anyone here found out who I was I would have been turned into Link immidietly. For that alone they deserved their deaths. Looking around more, my eyes fell upon the woman Meta Knight had shouted at, the woman called Rikku, I learned after reading her thoughts.

Watching as more monsters approached her, she took out two metal devices, which exploded after she threw them. Not completely sure what they were, to me it seemed like they were a miniature form of metal bombs. Disregarding it, I looked back at Meta Knight and watched him, becoming tired of just standing here. He looked at me, with an intent to attack. I walked towards him with my katana at my side. He charged me trying to get a hit on me. He must have assumed I was like the monsters, not being able to fight well. Determined to show him otherwise, I blocked his attack, and brought him to a complete stop. He repeated the frontal assault, (hmph, reckless idiot..) I thought as I blocked it again, pushing him back hoping he'd fall. I only saw him stumble. He jumped out of the way, and my katana hit the ground, then he jumped and stood on my blade, thinking he could keep it down. A mistake he would regret in his dieing moments. Despite his attempts I yanked my sword off the ground and threw him into the air, ready to stab when he hit the ground. He pulled some acrobatics however, and managed to land back on his feet, ruining my attack.

He charged yet again, and I raised my sword to block, but he swerved behind me and prepared to strike my back. I figured sooner or later, this idiot would figure out normal attacks wouldn't work, so I was prepared for attacks like this, I span quickly and pivoted my body, bringing my sword towards his, successfully deflecting it. I tried to counterattack, but he managed to dodge it. Getting very irritated by the constant blocking he was doing and I was forced to do, I watched him stand still for a minute. He ran at me again expecting yet another frontal assualt I brought my sword in front of me to block, but to my suprise he leaped over me with a pair of black bat wings and was facing my back, preparing to strike it like before. Knowing my sword wouldn't be able to block the attack, I turned and put my hand up to my face, with the palm facing him. I then called upon the element I had mastered, wind, and a gust of wind flew towards him as he came towards me. Since he was flying at the moment the gust hit him, he got thrown back into the wall.

I thought I had a chance to strike, but alas, he got back up. I looked at him, and he seemed to guess my wants, my bloodlust, but at the moment all I wanted was his blood. Again an image came into my head, with me standing over my victim in this case Meta Knight, his corpse covered in blood along with my blade. I could see myself laughing over him as the last signs of life faded from his eyes. Then, to my suprise, I suddenely felt a scratch of blood run across my face. Looking around to see what caused it, very angry that someone would dare to interrupt my battle, I saw Rikku the girl from earlier. I drew my katana and looked at her. Trying to figure out how to get her off guard, I spoke to her, saying

"Why do you defend the one who insulted you so badly earlier?"

Knowing she wouldn't be able to come up with a response, she opened her mouth to try and reply. (Such a foolish little girl...) I thought, I Lashed forward with my katana and slashed her. The wound wasn't fatal, but it would be if left untreated. Finally having scored a hit and being satisfied. At long last some fresh blood to calm my nerves. I turned and deflected Meta Knight again, he had charged at me with his wings this time, and shoved me with incredible force. He continued slashing, and was pushing me back. I managed to continue blocking him, but just barely, he was attacking with a force he hadn't shown up to this point. I noticed that I was approaching a wall, and I realised once I was pushed into it Meta Knight would quickly overwhelm me. I quickly began thinking of a way to get out of this situation. Suddenly, he stopped his assault and ran back to the woman. (The warrior wants to run, does he? Not very hero-like, no.) I decided to chase after him, seeing as he'd run off carrying the woman. But then I saw arrows coming at me, and I rolled to dodge them. To my utter dismay, I saw the one that had pursued me all the way here: Link, the hero of Hyrule.

6:30 P.M. 6/10

I looked at him with a darkness in my eyes. His image became suddenly distorted, and I saw not Link, but Death itself. I was stuck, unable to move, standing in Hyrule Castle. The Reaper, which looked to me like Link in nothing but a black flowing cloak, approached me with not a scythe, but the Four Sword. Watching him, struggling to get myself free, I saw Zelda in the distance, with a white cloak, and heard her commanding Link to destroy me. Behind me, I could hear Ganondorf, laughing at my failure. Seeing the Four Sword about to strike and seal me, the image suddenly vanished, I saw it coming, and I managed to block Link's attack. I jumped back and held my head in pain from the distortion.

He glared at me and spoke with hate in his voice. "You haven't changed at all, have you, demon?"

Glaring at him, I charged, swerving randomly. He brought his sword up and deflected it, slashing at me. I jumped back and rose into the air bringing darkness all around me. He looked up at me, and shot an arrow at me. Caught off guard, it hit me, and I flew back onto the ground wounded. Glaring at him and growling slightly, I summoned some energy in myself and launched a couple of hurricanes at him. Objects in the room began being tossed about like rag-dolls. However he countered by throwing a strange boomerang, which produced its own hurricane to negate all of mine, then fired more arrows at me. I was able to block them this time, but he donned a strange cape and leaped at me, slashing me in the chest. I fell to the ground, bleeding where he struck, but still able to fight. He came down about to impale me in the chest, but I rolled out of his way and faced him again.

He was moving his mouth as if he was talking, but I heard no words. All I could hear were my own voices in my head, screaming at me. I began having the mental image again. Link, watching me, walked towards me with a look of confusion. I held my head and felt like I was bleeding from the inside. I could hear the voices quite clearly, they were yelling things in my head, telling me what I failure I was, and that I was doomed to spend the rest of my miserable existence in the Four Sword. I finally screamed and slashed at Link rapidly, but I could only see him as the Reaper. He seemed to have trouble blocking the slashes, but I wasn't intending to kill him. I just wanted to get out. I finally knocked him over, and bolted for the door. Unfortunately, he shot me down with arrows. Enraged at him, I leapt at him and tried to take his bow. He and I struggled for possession of it for a few seconds, but he managed to yank it out of my grasp by kicking me, and he shot yet another arrow at me. I deflected it and ran towards the door, dodging his shots this time. Not wanting to see me get away, he threw his sword at me. I felt it pass by my neck cutting some of my hair as I fled the mansion and went into the forest.

Hiding amongst the trees, I ran as fast as I could, hoping to put some good distance between me and Link, not bothering to take into account that I was weakened by being exposed to that blade that had sealed me. Regardless, I kept on running and running, knowing what would happen if I was caught, and knowing that my cover was blown. I didn't see or hear Link anywhere, maybe he hadn't followed me for some reoson, but I had a horrible feeling in my stomach that he had. Cursing to myself as I ran, I finally came to a stop deep in the woods, near a spring. I sat down to rest, exhausted, when I noticed another presense nearby. Looking around, I noticed a woman. She had her back to me, so all I could see was her long black hair. I accidentally made a noise by breaking a twig, and she turned to me. I noticed that her skin was rather light, and that her hair covered most of her face, as mine did.

I wasn't sure what to do, but she looked at me and asked, "Who are you?"

Not wanting to respond, I tried to buy some time, by asking her who she was. She responded slowly, "...My name is...Raveness. Now tell me, who are you?"

Still reluctant to give my name, I bided for time again by keeping silent. Eventually, I responded, "My name is...my name is Vaati."

She repeated the name, but didn't question me further. Then, she grasped her forehead, as if she had a headache, and took off. I pondered her peculiar behavior for a while, trying to figure out what to do next. Knowing I could not go back to the mansion without being attacked, I needed to figure out a different plan. I thought about going after Raveness, and I eventually decided to go for it. I then got up, ran in the direction she ran off in.

7:00 P.M. 6/10

As I ran I was filled with an image of her in my head. She was pretty... from her long hair to her light red eyes. Now that I thought about it we had some characteristics in common. We both had long hair and red eyes, and were average weight. She was tall, and she was wearing a tight suit that covered her whole body, with a hood over it, although it had been down in our meeting. I wondered why the picture of her was so clear in my head. But I overlooked it as I continued running. I eventually came to a cave, and looked inside. There were sounds coming from inside it. (Could this be where she went off too?) I thought as I dashed inside.

Running throughout the cave, I had to adjust my vision so I could see better. Taking care not to trip and fall, I eventually saw some flashing lights. Following them, I came across Raveness, who was fighting some monsters. They kinda looked like really big moles, they had brown fur all over their bodies, and really tiny eyes. Their claws however, were massive, it was dark in here and I couldn't see all that well. But the claws seemed to be bigger then the monster's hands. Not to mention they were about as big as horses, they seemed deadly. Watching the fight, I saw she was losing, the monsters weren't letting up on her, constantly swinging towards her. She didn't have any chances to counter-attack. I fired off some wind elemental blasts to get the monsters to back off. Raveness turned and saw me, getting a look of suprise on her face. Then the monsters charged me, I ducked under a claw, and sent one of them to the ground, with a heavy strike to it's knees. Another, swung low closely afterwards, but it was too slow. I jumped backwards, and lunged at it, with several slashes to it's chest. A third one came out of the ground near me suddenely, and pushed me to the ground, hitting the same spot where Link had hurt me earlier. I rose back up off of the ground enraged, and stabbed forward with lightening speed, my katana going clean through the monster's body. There were still more monsters, but they burrowed under the ground, and I could hear the sound of them digging, further into the cave away from me. They were likely not coming back, I kneeled down to clean my sword, which was dripping with their blood. As I did, Raveness approached me, in a fighting stance.

She eventually dropped her guard, and looked at me. "Why did you follow me?", she asked.

Hesitating for a minute, I pondered that question myself. After having thought about it, it came to me that it seemed like...some otherworldly force had guided my actions. Like...like it was destiny that I had followed.

A bit confused, I asked "Why are you in here?"

"I am looking for something. It's dangerous in here, you should leave before you get hurt!" she said. With that, she ran off deeper into the cave.

I stood there for a few minutes thinking. Again unable to come up with a better plan, I started following her into the very heart of the cave, I saw her standing before an alter, with some sort of trinket on a pedestal. Then I felt the ground shaking, and another one of those mole things came out of the ground. Only this one was massive, much larger then the ones from earlier. It looked right at me and Raveness, and lunged at the two of us. Jumping to avoid impact, I landed and started firing off magicial blasts at it, to see if it would do any kind of damage to it. Unfortunately, it did nothing but anger the beast, and it charged at me. I had to run out of its way and ended up jumping forward and hitting the ground, when I got up and turned around I saw it had gotten a hold of Raveness. It was holding her still with one of it's hands, and it brought the other one down across her face. She had large scratch marks across her face, and one of her eyes had been gouged out of it's socket. Filled with anger, though I did not know where it was coming from, I faced the beast as I rose into the air, and called upon one of my strongest spells. Wind began flying all around the inside of the cave fiercly. It was so strong, it was carving into peices of rock, and more importantly, into the skin of the beast. It flinched around helplessly, as it was cut up into several different bloody peices. I was filled with glee, at the site of it all but alas, the spell took up a great deal of my energy and I blacked out a few seconds later.

9:30 P.M. 6/10

When I awoke, I remembered what had happened right before I lost consciouness. The spell I had cast, had sent a flurry of blades to flatout carve the beast into pieces, leaving blood all over its cut-up corpse. Then I looked over at Raveness, and saw her start to stir.

Heading over and doing my best to heal her wound, I noticed her look up at me. "The...the item..." she said, pointing to the item on the pedistal. I walked over and picked it up, handing it to her.

"Thank...thank you...Vaati." She said passing out.

I picked her up and carried her out of the cave, and back to the spring in the forest. Her injuries were bad, she needed more medical attention then I could provide. Ironic that she had warned me of the dangers of the cave, and then gotten hurt herself. I threw my cloak over my body and carried Raveness in the direction of town. I wandered around town in the direction of a hospitable I passed as I was fleeing the 2 nights ago. When I got there, I laid Raveness in front of one of the doors and stepped back, into the shadows. After about 5 minutes someone noticed her and took her inside. After that I walked back to the spot in the forest near the spring. I started healing my own wound as best I could. It was getting dark, when I finished I layed down and eventually drifted off to sleep.

10:30 P.M. 6/10

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Since, there have been some confusions about her in the past, I'll come out and say it. Raveness is a custom-made character. She isn't from any game.

**Well anyways, be nice and stop and take some time to to leave a review and such. I appreciate them, but I appreciate being told what I'm doing what much more!**


	6. Chapter 5

**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing to do with this fic, blah blah blah. Plot and characters used with permission blah blah blah... **

and finally we have a chapter NOT narrated by Meta or Vaati

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**Chapter 5**

Shadow The Hedgehog

8:00 P.M. 6/10

I sighed as I stared at the wall in Meta Knight's room. I'd been in here the past half hour and I was already bored out of my mind. I glanced around the room for the billionth time, it was a nice place, I wished I'd claimed it first. It was already dirty though, (that guy hasn't even been here one full day and already his room is a mess) I thought. I glanced over at the bed again, nothing changed. The girl was still laying there unconscious. Her, "medical treatment" if you could call it that, barely holding up. I honestly had no clue what I would do, if it came undone. I really didn't even know why I said I would wait here, considering that jerk's attitude. He better be nicer to me from now on, since I'm doing this. And he should be glad I'm nice to everybody. (Ok I need some nicer thoughts) I thought, trying to come up with something to do while I waited for Meta to come back. I stepped over to the plate of food he'd left for me and started eating.

It had gotten a little cold already, but it was still tasty. I'd seen Mell cooking in the kitchen before the "incident", she was a good cook, the food was really good. I thought back to what had happened a few hours ago, when Mell went insane. I was just talking to my buddy Ramza, when we heard somebody yelling. He turned to see who it was, and asked me if I knew who the blue thing was. I generally know everyone in the Smash Bros. tournament, so I guess he figured I would have known.I glanced over and told him who Meta Knight was, and that he was new this year. By that time Mell and Meta were already yelling at each other, and before we knew what was happening we had monsters trying to maul us over. (I wonder if Master Hand knew this was gonna happen... I doubt it... how can you predict, somebody going insane and becoming possessed by an evil side of themselves?) I thought. I'd spoken to Mell before, and she really was a nice...whatever the hell she was. I finished eating the food, and set the plate back down on the floor. I walked back over to the spot where I'd been sitting before and sat down again, doing nothing but waiting.

9:00 P.M. 6/10

50 minutes or so had passed since I sat down again. (He said he would only be gone for a little while...) I thought, expecting Meta Knight to come through the door any second now. I waited...and I waited...and I waited...and nothing ever happened.

"Grrrrr HURRY UP ALREADY!" I said, to noone in paticular, as I kicked the wall close to me.

About a minute someone popped their head through the door and said. "Hey could you keep it down or something?"

I glanced over to see who spoke and saw Ramza standing there.

"Hey Ramza, sorry about that, I'm a little bored at the moment.." I said to him.

"I didn't even know you took the room next to mine, why didn't you tell me earlier?" he replied. He had some bruises from the battle earlier.

"Oh this isn't my room, I'm watching that girl over there for the blue midget from earlier." I said, as I pointed towards the girl on the bed.

"Ouch, she lookes like she took a beating..." Ramza said.

"No fooling..." I said back.

He walked over to the bed, and held his hand out, a light shined out of his hand, and moved towards the girl, when it hit her, it dissipated and her wound was smaller.

"There we go, that should make her feel alot better when she wakes up" he said.

You see Ramza's kind of a jack of all trades when it comes to skill. He's good at fighting and magic casting and pretty much everything a fighter can be good at.

Ramza walked over, and sat down next to me.

"Well since your so bored, I guess I'll stay with you a little while, can't have you keeping everyone up like you normally do" he said with a smirk.

I typically cause trouble for everyone at night, for fun. Usually I ended up getting hurt by the end of it but it's so much fun I do it again the next night.

"No panty raids this time ok Shadow?" Ramza said.

I laughed, "You know I like the ladies" I said back.

"Yeah, but none of them like you" he said, laughing.

"So how have thing sbeen going for you?" I asked him, we hadn't got the chance to catch up in our last conversation.

"Eh, same old same old, you know me keeping the peace over in Ivalice and such" he said.

"Come on, something special has to have happened, it's been a year!" I said.

"Well...I met this girl a while back..." Ramza said.

"Oh really? and?..." I said, interested in what he was gonna say.

"Well we haven't known each other for that long... but she's nice..." he said.

"Like nice? or NICE?" I said back to him.

He blushed a little bit, and said "both."

I laughed again and said "Well what's her name?"

"Her name's Riola, I've known her for about a month, she's at the mansion actually. I invited her to come along and she got her a little after the incident, she was tired so she's asleep right now." He said/

"You'll let me meet her tomorrow right?" I said, with a smirk on my face.

"If you promise not to run her off" he said, smirking back.

"I'll try my best" I replied.

"I was planning on making something for her tomorrow morning actually, I'd rather it just be me and her for that, but afterwards I'll come find you and interduce you two to one another." He said.

I talked with him for a little bit longer, but eventually he stood back up and said "Anyways, I'm gonna go ahead and go to sleep, please don't keep me up anymore Shadow."

I frowned and said "Alright...I'll see you tomorrow..." And with that he walked out of the room and shut the door, and I resumed my boredom.

10:00 P.M. 6/10

(Well so much for not being gone for very long...) I thought, as I glanced back over at the clock. I was hungry again... but if I left to go to the kitchen and Meta came back while I was gone, I doubt he'd be very happy. I happened to glance at the second plate of food Meta Knight had brought in, the food meant for the girl. I looked back over at her, yep she was still unconscious. (The food will go to waste if it stays there for much longer) I thought. I stepped over to the plate, and sat down on the floor with it in my hand. It was cold but I didn't care, I started chomping it down as quickly as I could. A couple of minutes later, I put the now empty plate back up on the nightstand and went back to my waiting spot, my appetite now satisfied. I checked around the room again. Once more, there was nothing to be found that would cause a need for a guard to arise. (Why did I ever agree to this...) I thought. I was considering leaving, but Meta would probabaly hurt me if I did. It would be better if I just stayed here, but I was getting tired. (If he doesn't show up in the next half hour I'm going to sleep, and he can get over any anger issues he has about it.) I thought.

10:15 P.M. 6/10

I waited for about 5 more minutes, just staring at the wall when I heard the door open. I glanced back, and was filled with glee. Meta Knight was standing there! That meant I could finally leave this god forsaken room.

"Finally, there you are! do you have any idea how long I've been in this room doing absolutly nothing?!?!" I said.

"A little over 2 hours" he said back to me.

"YES! a little over 2 hours! a very long and boring two hours!" I said.

Meta Knight walked over to the bed where the girl was laying and said "Did anything happen?"

(Yes Meta, the Germans invaded, OF COURSE NOT! what the hell did you think might happen?!?!) I thought. He didn't even seem to acknowledge my last sentence.

I sighed and said "No, she just layed there the whole time..."

Meta looked her over and said, 'She seems fine."

'What did I just tell you?!?! are you even listening to me?!?!" I said back to him.

"Sort of" he replied back, "Thanks for watching her for me, you can leave now."

I wasn't about to leave after waiting here for over 2 hours, after getting nothing but a thank you.

"I'm not just gonna leave after all that" I said.

"Well what do you want then?" Meta said back, turning around and glaring at me.

"Uhh...err...ummm..." I couldn't think of anything.

"Exactly" he said, turning back around. "

Well that's not the point!, what the heck were you doing for this long anyway?!?!" I said, trying to change the subject.

"I was looking for someone..." he said.

"For two hours?!?!?!" I replied.

"Yeah for 2 hours... never found him though..." He said back.

"So I spent the past 2 hours in here for nothing?" I said, sputtering.

"If you want to think of it like that then yes, I guess you did..." he said.

(Last time I do a favor for you...) I thought.

Meta, took a spare pillow off of the bed, and set it down on the floor. "Well you can leave now...I'm going to sleep" he said.

"Grrrr...fine...but if your gonna ask me to do something for you, make it worth my damn while next time!!!" I said, kind of angry at him.

"Whatever..." Meta said, laying his head on the pillow.

I decided not to say anything else, and just walked back out into the hallway, going down one floor and into my room. I flopped on the bed, sleepily. (Man...I forgot I was tired...) I thought. I layed there for a little while longer before finally drifting off to sleep.

10:30 P.M. 6/10

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A short chapter? Yes. A nessecary chapter? Again yes. Is it still short? Yes. But it's ok. I know how to treat my fans. (All 7 of you.) SOOOO go ahead and enjoy Chapter 6 it's a double update! so be happy, and leave a review


	7. Chapter 6

**DISCLAIMER: You should know by now that I'm not Bill Gates, or Sakurai. And thereofr do not own anything mentioned in this fic. The plot and custom-made characters are used with permission**

_Note: This chapter was written by my buddy Brendan, and co-written by me_

_---_

**Chapter 6**

Rikku

3:15 A.M. 6/11

Darkness... blackness... nothingness... I opened my eyes slowly. It was hard to see... I looked out the window to see nothing but darkness and the pale light of the moon. I tried to move, but immediately cringed in pain, my chest felt like it was on fire. I glanced down and saw a nasty wound there, with some work done on it to prevent it from killing me.My eyes began to adjust, and I got a better view of the room I was in. It was messy, not organized at all. I looked over to the side and saw a figure on the ground. I squinted my eyes, and recognized the figure to be the little blue guy I met earlier, Meta Knight. He was asleep, and I figured it was safe to assume that he saved me from that strange cloaked man. I realized how exhausted I was, even though I had been unconscious for the longest time. I leaned my head back, and eventually fell asleep...

10:00 A.M. 6/11

I awoke the next morning to the feeling of warmth on my face. It was the sun. I opened my eyes and looked around again. I heard a familiar voice.

"You're awake. Good."

I turned to see Meta Knight looking at me from a chair in the corner. I spoke to him

"Meta? Did you bring me here?"

He nodded. I smiled and gave him a hearty thanks. His expression remained unchanged, and I found it a little bit weird... maybe it was the mask, I dunno. Anyways... He got up and walked over to me.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Well..." I tried to move again, but I winced and felt the same burning sensation from the previous night

"Nngh...!" I groaned as the pain shot through my chest. I could tell that I worried him

"Hey! Careful. You shouldn't be moving if it hurts THAT bad." he said. I nodded. He was silent for a moment. I could tell he was the arrogant type, especially after what happened yesterday.

"... Is there anything you want? I'll get it for you..." he asked reluctantly after a few minutes of silence.

"Um..." My stomach growled, and I blushed a bit "I could eat..."

He let out a smirk at my embarrasment and then walked over to the door "I'll be back in a bit." He left and I layed back down...

BANG! CRASH! CRUSH! "Aagh! What's going on?!" I heard someone scream. Something was going on. I heard a commotion and voices talking to each other

"Ahg!"

"Come here! I'm gonna kick the snot outta ya!"

"Stay back!!!"

I layed there, confused as to what's going on. Next I heard a large crash outside of my room, and the voices I'd heard were trailing out. Whatever commotion was going on, was taken outside.

I heard the sobs of a girl "... Drusk... Armond..." The sobs went away.

After a few moments of awkward silence, I heard approaching footsteps. Meta burst into the room

"Are you alright?!" he said, obviously flustered.

"Ye-yeah..." I said, confused. He sighed with relief

"What happened out there?!" I asked him.

"A fight busted out. Some big crazy guy with a spear attacked these guys. The big guy threw one of them through the outside wall, and they kept fighting outside. I don't know where they went... There's this big pile of cards laying in the middle of the hallway though. I don't know where they came from, but they look weird." He said, carrying some food.

"That's weird. Do you know any of their names?"

He shook his head no and handed me the plate of food. Seeing as how I probabaly wouldn't be getting any more informaiton on the outburst that had just happened, I thanked him and started eating. He watched me while I did it. It kinda creeped me out, but my gurgling stomach took priority. After eating I set the plate down on the nightstand.

He walked over to me. "Hey... What's with your eyes? They're all swirly." he said.

(Why was he looking at my eyes?) I thought, but I had expected this would come sooner or later, and I was prepared to explain to him.

"Well, I'm an Al Bhed. We're a race of humans, with green and swirly eyes... We're not a respected race though. We face a lot of prejudice and racism, and it hurts. That's why a lot of us wear goggles or thick glasses. It's too hide our eyes, which make us stand out in a crowd." I explained, having a little bit of trouble doing so.

He was quiet for awhile, taking it all in. I decided to break the silence again.

"Have you had any luck finding Yuna?" I asked him.

He seemed confused for a bit "Yuna...?" after a moment of silence. "Oh yeah! Isn't she that girl you're looking for?"

I nodded. He shook his head no "Nope. Haven't gotten any leads."

I felt sad for a bit... Yuna is one of the few family members I have left. She's my cousin. She's real nice and gentle. She's got brown hair, blue and green eyes. She's beautiful, and she's also famous. Not only is she a Summoner, but she's also a popular music artist. She saved the world from a great evil known as Sin, and then made the world even better with her music. I felt better after thinking about her for a bit. She should be fine, Paine's with her...

"You ok?" Metaknight asked, noticing my sad expression.

"Er, yeah! I'm fine. Fine!" I let out a smile.

"...ok then." He said. "How's your chest?" he asked again.

For the third time I attempted to move, but couldn't. "Hm... Alright." he said I heard a rumbling in the distance. Thunder? I hope not... I hate thunder... I hate lightning... I've always been scared of storms.

I looked outside and saw a familiar red ship in the distance. "Hm? No way! That's the Celsius!" I shouted.

"Celsius? What the hell is that?" Meta Knight asked.

"It's the ship Yuna's on! She found me!" I was beaming. My day just got 50 times better!

"We have to go see her!" I said to him.

"No... Not in your shape. I'll go get her to come to you." he replied. I was a little bummed, since I wouldn't get to see Yunie right away, but I was still happy! She's so close now!

I smiled and said "Ok." He nodded and left the room I layed back down, thinking about everything that's been happening. I ended up dozing off...

12:05 P.M. 6/11

I awoke a few hours later. It was almost early evening. I looked outside and saw the Celsius parked right by the mansion! I got excited, and I heard footsteps approaching. The door to my room opened and Meta Knight walked in. Shortly after he walked in, Yuna AND Paine came in!

"Yunie! Paine!" I said, smiling nice and big.

"Hello Rikku. I can tell you aren't in the best of shape..." Yuna said. I could tell she was worried about me.

Paine leaned up against a wall, not saying much as usual. "Hi." she said.

"Where have you two been?" I asked.

"Oh you know, traveling the world, gathering spheres. Same old same old." replied Yunie. I smiled, glad that they were still keeping the Gullwings in business.

Paine spoke up "We've been looking for you." I nodded

"I've been worried about you both!" I said.

I looked over at Meta Knight, who was keeping quiet. We were leaving him out of the conversation, so I decided to get him in on it.

"Um... Meta Knight?" I asked.

"Yeah?" he replied,

"Do you know what the Gullwings are?"

He shook his head no.

"Oh, I'll tell you, ok?" I said. He shrugged.

"The Gullwings are a team of sphere hunters. We travel the world in our ship, the Celsius, and we go to all sorts of places! See, spheres are powerful little objects that have all sorts of goodies on them. Some of them have video recordings, some are just junk, and some even have items and stuff to use!" I said.

Meta seemed bored, so I decided to stop. Yuna smiled, but Paine just closed her eyes and turned away.

Yuna walked over to me "I'm glad we found you, but I'm a little worried about this injury of yours..." she said.

I looked down at it. It didn't look any better. It almost made me feel sick, but I shrugged off the feeling. I could tell Meta was worried too. He kept glancing back and forth between me and Paine. He kept eyeing her suspiciously, and looking at me with sympathy.

I turned back to Yuna "Do you think you could heal it for me Yunie?" I asked, with puppy dog eyes.

"Oh of course Rikku!" she replied. She activated her Garment Grid, changing into a White Mage.

I could tell Meta was surprised. His eyes widened as her clothes vanished, and a new set of clothes appeared before her naked body was revealed. I let out a grin.

Yuna placed her staff just above my wound and chanted for a little bit. "Cure" she said softly. A white glow enveloped the end of the staff and my wound. I felt the burning sensation subside, and the wound was almost completely healed.

"Wow! Thanks Yunie!" I said, jumping out of bed and hugging her.

The two of us laughed, and I could see Paine let out a small smile. Meta was still a bit awestruck about the garment grid, but I saw him smile. He was glad to see me better, and that made me feel good.

"Be careful though. It's not completely healed, but at least it doesn't hurt, right?" Said Yuna. I nodded.

Yuna then turned to Meta Knight. "Surprised at my change?" He nodded.

Yuna let out a little laugh "It's one of the many many capabilities of spheres." He shrugged.

Paine spoke up again "No use boring him with details. He obviously doesn't care."

"Are you done yet?" Meta asked, seemingly annoyed for some reason.

I could see Paine glare at him, but I don't think he noticed it.

"Rikku?" he said, calming down slightly.

Yuna stepped back so I could chat with him.

I looked at him "Yes?".

"Do you mind coming with me to look for someone? I helped you find your friends, so can you help me find my... er... friend? I talked to Ultima and Mell, and they agreed to let you three stay here as long as you need too, so you can catch up later." he said.

I was confused at the delay before the word friend, but I passed it off as just paranoia. I knew I was indebted to him, so I had no other choice but to accept.

"Um, sure thing! I'll catch you two later. Bye!" I said to the girls, waving.

Yuna waved, smiling, and Paine just stood there.

Meta Knight and I walked outside. I then noticed the craziness from the fight earlier. A couple of walls were damaged, and some of them were destroyed. There was a gaping hole in the side of the mansion, and it looked like some people went through it. I studied the scene a bit, and then continue onward with Meta. He lead me in the direction of the forest, but all of a sudden a black and red blur ran at us. I jumped back, thinking it was an enemy, but it stopped, showing the black and red hedgehog I saw in the main room of the mansion yesterday. The first thing that I noticed was that he was crying...

"Meta...did you hear yet?" he said, bawling.

"Hear about what?" Meta responded.

The hedgehog glanced at me, for a few seconds, and he notioned for Meta to walk with him a little ways away. Apparently whatever it was, he didn't want me knowing. The two of them talked for a few seconds, before Meta got an expression of shock on his face. He nodded to the hedgehog and walked back over to me. I was about to say something when Meta grabbed my arm and led me into the forest. I looked back at the hedgehog for a moment, and then back at Meta Knight.

"What was that all about?" I asked him. Meta hestitated to tell me.

"There was...a murder this morning..." I almost fell over when I heard that, I was already being filled with emotions of sadness, I knew how hard dealing with death was.

Despite seeing my reaction, Meta decided to continue " The man's name was Ramza... Shadow said he was a good friend to alot of people..." Meta didn't continue after that.

I couldn't beleive it... I fought to hold back tears.

"So... then where are you taking me? What are we doing?" I sputtered out to Meta Knight, as we walked down a path in the woods.

He turned to me, and and pointed to a spot off of the path and started walking. I followed him and repeated my question

"What are we doing?"

"Well..." Meta said "We're going after the murderer...the cloaked man, Vaati"

12:30 P.M. 6/11

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PLOT TWIST!

so yeah. Leave me a review or two, or better yet three. Tell me if you liked it. Tell me if you hated it (and if so, why you hated it). Tell me hi. I don't care, just leave a review so I know you care. (seeing as how Chap 4, got a whopping 30 hits after a week --)


	8. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: Must I keep saying this? I don't own anything in this fic, and the plot and non-video game characters are used with permission --...flomage...**

_note: this chapter was again written by my bud Brendan and co-written by me. Also, PLEASE LEAVE A FREAKIN REVIEW. Now enjoy. Oh and sorry for the rehashing near the beginning. I didn't see a need to go through the Mellora battle in full detail a third time._

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Chapter 7

5:30 P.M. 6/10

Ramza

I arrived at this mansion in mid-summer. I had been sent an invitation to participate in Super Smash Bros., which I know plenty about. I was excited, I was probably one of the least likely candidates to be invited. I rode my chocobo, Boco, to the mansion. As I approached it, a strange cloaked man began probing my mind from nearby. I turned to him and pointed my sword at him.

"Who are you and why are you reading my thoughts?" I said firmly. He seemed surprised. I don't think he expected to encounter someone who knew they were being mind-probed.

"Sorry, I was just curious is all." he replied.

I lowered my sword, he didn't seem like he was going to attack me. I looked him over for a few minutes, I didn't recognise him and he looked suspicious but I had no reoson to assume he was dangerous so I merely continued riding towards the mansion. I rode over to the mansion, I said another sentence or two to the cloaked man who was following me. When I finally got near the door I hopped off of Boco. He obediently started grazing around the lawn of the mansion. I knew that he wouldn't go very far.

I went inside, first entering into the foyer. I saw several people there already. My fame had preceded me it seemed. Many people knew who I was before I even introduced myself. That made me feel great and all, but I felt a sort of loneliness. Many of my allies from my past adventures had traveled astray or died, and all I had left was Riola...

I starting thinking about Riola, she was my lover. I remembered I had met her traveling in Ivalice a few months ago, and we had become very intimate. I invited her to join me here, and she accepted, but she couldn't make it for another day or so.

It was a good thing she could not make it yet, because there was a strange woman at the mansion named Mell. She was part dragon it seemed, and I sensed an evil deep within her, dormant... While I was talking with an old friend of mine Shadow I heard her arguing with someone, and her dark side exploded from within her. She summoned many dark creatures, and they all attacked us.

The whole area was in an uproar, trying to fight the beasts. Many of us did well, but some of us struggled. A young, blonde woman was very badly wounded, and a small round creature with a mask saved her. One of the beasts had grabbed two of it's brethren, and the 3 of them all converged on me at once. Lucky for me I was used to group combat, and I drew my sword. Before they got too close, I took a rock out of my pocket and threw it at one of them hitting it in the eye. It reeled back, clutching it's eye, while the other two kept coming. I jumped up above them and came down upon it with a strong vertical slash, slaying it in an instant. The third beast also lunged at me, and it managed to knock me into a wall. I got a few minor cuts and bruises, but nothing major. I simply stood back up, and stabbed the beast through the head as it attacked again. Once again, a beast fell in front of me, and the creature I had thrown the rock at was now charging in a blind rage. It was easy to avoid it's vicious attack and swiftly decapitate it. Some of it's blood spattered onto me, but I didn't mind. I charged towards another group of monsters and continued fighting, killing sveral of them.

After fighting the beasts for awhile, Mell regained her normal form and the monsters dispersed, everyone took some time to make sure everything and everyone was intact from the battle and then most of them went to their rooms to rest and recuperate.

I had traveled far and wide, fighting all sorts of monsters and evil humans. I was branded a Heretic by the Church, which was the ruling power in my homeland. I knew I wasn't. The church was corrupt, but such thoughts branded me as blasphemous. Assassins and powerful Clergymen were constantly after my head, desperate to silence me before I revealed their horrible secret. After years of this, I finally did it. I saved the land and revealed the Church for what it really was: A corrupt and evil hell-hole.

Anyways, upon defeating the monsters, I went upstairs. I walked into my room, and heard a commotion next door. I looked inside to shush them, and realized it was one of my old friends, Shadow the Hedgehog. He was watching over the blonde girl that was injured earlier. Someone had done some patchwork on her wound, but it was still rather serious. I went into the room, and Shadow asked me some questions about where I've been or how things have been going. I told him about Riola, and he was happy for me. I glanced over at the girl again and could tell she was in critical condition. She needed more than just patchwork, so I approached her and used a healing spell on her wound. It healed partially, enough to keep her alive, but the wound was still there. I yawned, tired from the battle, and told Shadow farewell. I went back to my room and rinsed some of my own wounds out with cool water. My eyes grew heavy, and I lied down on my bed, falling asleep shortly after.

8:00 A.M. 6/11

I awoke the next morning to Riola shaking me gently. I opened my eyes, and groggily spoke to her.

"Mm...Riola? When'd you get in?"

She smiled and gave me a soft kiss.

"Hi there I just got in this morning. I came straight to you." She said, smiling.

I looked up at her pretty hazel eyes and her brown hair that draped over her shoulders. She was pretty, average height and kinda skinny. She had on a buttoned shirt, and a pair of blue jeans.

"I brought some of my friends along. I'd like you to meet them!" she said, seemingly excited.

I groaned, somewhat annoyed that my sleep was interrupted, but got out of bed anyway. I didn't want her to get angry, so I went along with her. She smiled and took my arm, leading me down into the manor's foyer. Several people were there already. I noticed the small round creature that helped the blonde girl getting some food. I also saw Shadow flirting with a woman in a pink dress, as usual. He said something I did not hear, and the woman slapped him. He rubbed his cheek and grinned, not caring that he was shot down. He wandered off, probably to find another girl. I sighed, and Riola brought me over to 5 strange gentlemen.

2 of them were in red, 2 in black, and the other in average clothing. The 4 in red and black were dressed strangely. One of the men dressed in red was very muscular and powerful looking. He wore a vest, and had 4 swords on his person. Two large swords on his back, and two katanas sheathed at his side. The other one in red was smaller. He looked like a skater, with baggy clothing and crazy hair. The one with long hair was quiet. He didn't talk much, and he wore dark clothing. He looked like a ninja or something. The 4th one wore a large cloak. The other man had some technological gadgets with him. Seeing this reminded me of Worker 8, one of my allies, and it saddened me slightly. I did not show it, since I didn't want to worry Riola.

"Ramza, these are the Deck Bros. and Armond. Boys, this is Ramza." Riola said, smiling.

The large muscular one smiled. "Hello Ramza. I'm Edgar, Heart of the Deck Bros." he said heartily.

Edgar extended his hand to shake mine, and I did the same. He seemed extremely strong, but not too bright. He had scars all over his arms, which I assumed were battle scars from past battles.

The other guy in red, with the skater outfit, spoke. "Hi there Ramza! I'm Kiaser! I'm the Diamond of the Brothers!" he said excitedly.

He had baggy clothing and various pads on his elbows and knees, all of them made of diamonds.

The cloaked one spoke. "Good day. I'm Chad, Club of the Deck Brothers" he said quietly.

He was mysterious, he had a heavy cloak over most of his body, and a hood over his head. He also had strange devices on his wrists.

The 4th one spoke, the one with long hair. "I am Drusk. Spade of the Deck Brothers" he said with no emotion whatsoever.

His eyes also seemed empty. It was as if he didn't have any emotions at all! I shook his hand, still a bit curious as to what he really was.

The 5th man spoke. "Hi there. My name is Armond, it's nice to meet you." he said. I nodded and shook his hand.

I was confused. (Deck Brothers? Diamonds? Hearts? Clubs? Spades? What does it all mean?) I thought. I decided to ask them.

"So... Why do you call yourself the Deck Brothers?"

Edgar was the first to speak. "Well, all of us represent a different suit of cards, and the 4 of us also have superpowers, but we can only use them with playing cards. Would you like to see our powers?'

I nodded. He focused for a moment, and one of his scars opened up. A card rose out of the scar, in mint condition there was no blood or anything, it looked like it'd just been made in a factory or something.! I was awestruck already, but there was still the other 3. I patiently waited. Kiaser was next. He took out a card that had the image of a sword on it. He focused on the card, and the sword materialized out of the card and became a real sword in his hand!! Chad was next. He showed the objects on his wrists. I saw that they were cardshooters. He shot several cards out and then closed his eyes. He then begun manipulating them with his mind. I was not too surprised, since telekinesis is a normal skill where I come from.

I turned to Drusk. "How about you?" I said to him.

He was silent for a moment. Suddenly, his body began to distort. He revealed himself to be made out of cards, and he shape shifted into a large creature resembling a Behemoth.

I was impressed. "Wow!" It was all I could say. Wow. Nothing more, nothing less.

I glanced over at Armond and said "So what can you do?"

He chuckled and replied, "Who me? oh I don't have any powers or nothing, I'm just a normal human being."

Drusk spoke, again with no emotion. "As you can see, Edgar can create cards, Chad can manipulate cards, Kiaser can summon things from cards, and I can use cards to change my form."

I listened to him intently. I still had one question though. "Why are you made of cards?" I asked.

He was quiet. I could tell it wasn't the right question to ask. The other three brothers seemed troubled.

"Sorry... You don't have to answer if you don't want to." I said. Drusk nodded

Riola was beaming, glad that her buddies met me, and vice versa. I smiled and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Some more people were now in the foyer, and, Shadow was no longer present. The woman in the pink dress that had slapped Shadow was now talking to a short man in red and blue overalls. He had a large nose and a moustache. There was a red and white "M" on his cap. The two were chatting, and I turned back to the Brothers, Armond, and Riola, who were also looking around the foyer.

"Well, it was nice meeting you Ramza, but the 5 of us need to find us some rooms. I'll see you later" said Edgar who was walking away with the others.

"I need to go to honey. I'll talk to you later!" Riola said, smiling. She gave me a kiss and ran off.

(Good, now I have time to make that present for her) I thought. I went into my room and locked the door, planning to make a beautiful amulet for Riola which I told Shadow about the previous night. There was a furnace, and some other smithing tools in there, which I found somewhat strange, but then again it was the reason I chose this room in the first place. Now that I thought about it, Ultima and Mell had very strange interior designing skills. I remembered when I was looking for a room to stay in, there was one that had a merry-go-round right in the center, and their were even strangers ones then that elsewhere in the mansion. I shrugged the thought off and went to work, creating the beautiful golden amulet for Riola.

10:00 A.M. 6/11

A couple hours later, I finished it, and engraved the words "Riola and Ramza, Together Forever" on it's face. I smiled, proud of my work, and walked out of the room. I started walking down the hallway, to find Riola, when all of a sudden, I was blindsided by a fist to my face. I flew back, caught completely off guard and hit the ground hard. I tucked the amulet into my pocket, and looked up at the assailant. He was huge, larger then Edgar. He had a lot of hair, all of it crazy and wild. He wore a red vest, showing his chest, and also had brown and red pants on. He wielded a massive spear-like weapon in his right hand.

"I'm Keiji Maeda, and I've been sent to kick the snot outta ya!" he said loudly.

I jumped back to my feet, in a battle position. This guy was crazy, his eyes were darting all over. I could tell that the rage and excitement on his exterior was fueled by a deep and profound sadness deep within the darkness of his heart, just by looking at those eyes. He rushed at me, attacking surprisingly fast for someone so large. I struggled to keep my defenses up. I heard some doors open up and I saw Armond, Drusk, and Riola rushing to my aid, I guess they picked rooms on the third floor as well. Armond and Drusk began attacking the man, and Riola stayed back, worried for the three of us. All three of us fought against him, yet he still had the advantage!

Armond charged and jumped at him, ready to fire a gun he had pulled out and was holding in his left hand. Keiji saw it coming, and impaled him on his spear. Riola gasped, Armond coughed up blood, and my eyes widened as blood gushed out of his wound, and he fell over dead. Drusk seemed to be unaffected by his comrade's death, and attacked. I stared at them in horror, but soon regained my power upon seeing Riola's tears as she cried for Armond.

I charged at Keiji, furious at him for killing my friend and hurting Riola's feelings. Drusk charged with me, and we both slashed downwards at him upon jumping in the air. Keiji blocked BOTH of us, and pushed us into a wall with great force, cracking it. While Drusk was still up against the wall, Keiji thrust his spear into his chest. Drusk went limp, and his body turned into CARDS! The pile of cards collapsed, and didn't take another form. I assumed he was dead. Riola was bawling now.

Keiji dropkicked me while I was up against the wall. I got slammed through the wall and hit the ground outside. Riola fell to her knees, and Keiji jumped after me. Before I was sent flying too far, I heard Riola sobbing.

"Drusk... Armond..." she said through her tears.

I managed to land on my feet outside, and Keiji rushed at me. I ran from him, knowing I had no chance. I ran as fast as I could, as if Hell itself were after me, yet he kept up. We ran through the forest, occasionally parrying each other's blows as we ran. We soon came out of the trees and ended up on a cliff far above the ocean. I knew this as the end. One of us would die here. I readied myself, my back to the cliff, facing Keiji.

Keiji smirked. "Sorry pal, boss's orders." He said, he then attacked.

We kept exchanging blows, Keiji swung his spear diagonally, and I hopped backwards to avoid it. I then jumped forward, and stabbed towards him, only to be knocked away before I could make contact. He stabbed forward with his spear, but I side-stepped it and slashed him. I landed a very small wound on him, but it seemed like it didn't hurt him to much. He slung his spear around and I jumped backwards again. It was then that I made a very startling discover. As we were battling we were moving closer and closer to the edge of the cliff, and in my last evasive manuver I'd almost toppled off. (Damn!, he was intentionally pushing me over here!) I thought. Keiji smirked and slashed forward, I countered his slash with one of my own. Our weapons locked together, and we pushed on them, trying to knock the other off balance. Keiji won the deadlock, and I was staggered, completely defenseless.

"No!" I said as he grabbed my by my head and threw me off the cliff.

"Yer outta here!" he shouted as I was thrown.

I fell over the cliff's edge. I looked down and saw the sharp rocks far below. This was it, It was over for me. I began to cry, knowing I'd never see my beloved Riola again. I pulled out the amulet I never got to give her, and looked at it.

"Riola... I'm so sorry... please forgive me..." I said through my tears.

I clutched the amulet in my hand. I glanced down again. The rocks were getting closer and closer. I glanced and saw Shadow on the beach nearby. He noticed me falling, and his eyes widened in terror as I slammed into the rocks. I barely survived the fall, but my body was broken, gashes and internal damage all over.

Shadow ran over to me, crying. "My God! Ramza! Stay with me here!" he cried out, clutching my hand.

"Shadow..." I said weakly, "I'm sorry... My body... it's shattered..."

My eyes became heavy, my whole body in immense pain.

"No!... Don't say that! You won't die! You can't!!" Shadow said.

"Riola... Shadow... Tell Riola... Give her... This amulet in my... hand..." I said.

He opened my hand and saw the amulet, now bloodstained and dented from my fall. He took it.

Riola... my beautiful Riola...my life has been filled with adventure and glory, with love and honor, with life, and now death. Tears streamed down my face, partially from pain, partially from my despair that I'll never see her beautiful eyes again. Her long brown hair. Her deep and mysterious eyes, her soft lips, Her warm touch. I won't feel any of it ever again. I won't see any of it ever again.

My life flashed before my eyes. My father's death after the war, my initiation into the academy, and the first marauder I killed. My secession from the Knights, and my initiation into Gafgarion's Mercenaries. My quest to save the Princess, my discovery of the Church's plot, my rise and fall from Fate, and my fame being spread... all of it, gone.

My eyes grew heavier now, my vision blurred. Shadow was right there, but his voice seemed far off and a long ways away.

"Ramza, please don't die... Don't leave me!" he said.

My eyes found themselves closing, my breathing slowing, my heart stopping.

...Darkness

10:30 A.M. 6/11

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The Deck Brothers and Riola, are all custom made characters.

Keiji Maeda is from Samurai Warriors 1 and 2. Remember him, cause later on he's gonna be important.

you know you want to leave a review...I can the hear the voice telling you too...because I put it there...


	9. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: If you beleive that I own anything mentioned in this fic. Please grab the nearest fork and insert it into your eye-ball. The plot and custom-made characters are used with permission.**

_Note: This chapter was (again) written by mah buddeh Brendan, and co-written by me. It's the last one for a while, I promise. Also what do I have to do or say to convince you people to leave reviews? it's official. I have double the number of chapters then I do reviews --._

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Chapter 8

Raveness

10:00 A.M. 6/11

I awoke the next morning in a hospital bed, the sun shining on me through the window. I had several bandages around my head, torso, and left leg, and my body as a whole was in pain.

"Well, seems like you had a bit of a scrap last night!!!" said the voice in my head, Xalces.

"Shut up..." I said to him.

Xalces has been a part of me since I was only 8 years old. He's a parasitical demon, and I'm his unfortunate host. He's an Unluck Demon, and whoever he is near tends to have bad luck.

Xalces ruined my life, and he still taunts me, even after 14 years. I was young, and naive. He fooled me, into releasing him from his prison and he forced himself into me. I was a perfectly happy little girl, but once I was possessed, my own kin looked at me with looks of disgust on their faces. They called me a Demon Child and shunned me from my home. Even my own parents didn't hesitate to have me kicked out of my village. I've been alone for 14 years now, constantly dealing with Xalces I'm surprised I haven't gone insane yet.

Xalces laughed. "Telling me to shut up won't help you at all! I'm part of you, and you can't do anything about it!!"

Another laugh. After so long, you'd think I could ignore him, and you're right. I ignore him almost all the time, and it tends to work. Sometimes he'll go whole weeks without doing anything.

I looked around at the various medical machines and the vacant bed besides my own.

A doctor walked in, "Ah, you're awake I see" he said softly.

I looked up at him, and he continued, "Well, you were in bad shape last night. A strange looking man brought you here and left you without a word. We immediately brought you to the ER to treat your injuries, but unfortunately, it wasn't a total success." he said somewhat quickly.

"Haaaaa ha! Sucks for you!" Xalces again.

"How so?" I responded, ignoring Xalces again.

"Well, we were able to patch up and treat all of your wounds, but we were unable to do so with your left eye." he said, motioning towards the bandaging around the left side of my head.

I simply remained in silence, letting him continue if need be.

"You'll need to wear this over your now empty left eye socket." he said, holding up an eye patch.

Xalces laughed again.

So I'd lost my eye, at least I wasn't left blinded. The doctors do what they can, and I do not care, so long as I can continue my quest to somehow kill Xalces so I can finally live a normal life again. I took the eye patch and the doctor left me alone, probably to tend to his other patients. My things were on a table in the room. I didn't care if I wasn't supposed to leave, I got up, put all of my things back on, removed the bandaging, and put on the eye patch.

(Time to find Vaati, he deserves my gratitude.) I thought to myself.

"That guy who helped you? He's a freak!" Said Xalces.

Suddenely a door slammed open in front of me. I jumped to the side, avoiding a smack to the face, typical Xalces tactic, attack when I didn't see it coming. I heard him grumble, and I laughed to myself.

I have trained my body for a very long time. My senses are above human levels, and I'm very quick and agile. I've also learned many various martial arts, and can also wield shortswords with ease. It's made life with Xalces much easier. I looked over at a mirror, and saw a beautiful 22 year old woman with long black hair and red eyes. Er, eye would be a more correct term now. I saw myself wearing a full body leather suit, colored black, along with boots and several concealed weapons. A throwing dagger in one of my boots, a sword sheathed at my side, and other such things.

"Stop ogling yourself woman!" Shouted Xalces as he made the mirror shatter.

I ducked in time to avoid a faceful of glass, and shrugged as I left the room.

I left the hospital with ease. No one tried stopping me. I traveled around for a few hours, looking for Vaati, but instead found another cave bearing an artifact I required. I decided to go in, hoping their wouldn't be too many monsters within.

"Yer gonna get hurt!" Xalces taunted. Again, I ignored him.

12:00 P.M. 6/11

The cave was dark, but not as dark as the previous cave, since it was still daytime. I entered the first chamber and saw a tunnel leading off elsewhere. I followed the tunnel, and soon heard footsteps behind me. I quickly turned to confront the stalker, but realized it was Vaati! He had seen me enter the cave it seems.

"Vaati, I've been looking for you." I said to him.

"Oh? Well I've been looking for you as well. You were not where I left you" he replied.

"Well, I can't stand being left with nothing to do, so I left the hospital as soon as I could." I said back, somewhat coldly.

I've never really trusted anyone in my life, but there was something different about Vaati... Something... more.

"Aww, lil baby Raveness is in love!" Xalces again.

("Shut up! I'm sick of you!") I replied with my thoughts.

"You've been sick of me since the day we met!" he laughed again.

Vaati seemed unaffected by my cold reply, and I assumed he was used to such treatment.

"...Sorry." I said after a moment,"I did not mean anything by it".

He seemed surprised. I don't think he'd ever been apologized or spoken nicely to before, and I immediately felt bad for him. My life was the same way, No one really cared about me. He had been there for me when I needed help, and I was grateful.

"Vaati, I..." I said, trailing off.

"Yes?" he said.

"Vaati, I wanted to thank you, if it weren't for you I would of..." I trailed off again.

He stood there, another look of surprise in his face. He seemed like he had never been thanked before.

"You... your welcome." he said quietly.

I looked at him for a moment.

"There's another artifact I need in this cave. Do you mind helping me again?" I asked.

"Of course, Raveness." he said to me.

The two of us continued deeper into the cave. There had been no monsters yet, but I knew there would be one sooner or later.

"DIE!" All of a sudden, the ground beneath me gave way, courtesy of Xalces, and I began to fall into a very deep pit.

I screamed and closed my eye, thinking it was over, but my body stopped in midair. I opened my eye and looked up to see that Vaati had barely managed to grab my hand. He pulled me up, and my body pressed up against his as he did so. I looked into his eyes, and he looked into mine. This was the second time he had saved my life, I had to thank him somehow, so I leaned forward, and kissed him.

"Damn it!" Xalces cried, at his failed attempt to kill me.

His eyes widened at first, completely taken by surprise from my affection, but he soon returned the kiss. I stopped it after a moment.

"Thank you again, Vaati..." I said softly.

"My pleasure" he said with a small smile. The two of us continued deeper into the cave.

"Umm...why do you need these artifacts anyway?" Vaati asked as we walked.

"Yes, yes, tell him all about your little plan. And that you have a demon living inside you, so he can shun you like everyone else did" Xalces said.

(Damn...he might be right...) I thought. I needed these artifacts so that I could do a ceremony to rid myself of Xalces for good and be normal again.

"I'd rather not say...I'm sorry..." I replied to Vaati.

He didn't question it any further and we continued walking eventually coming to a dead-end. I saw a ring on a pedestal in the room.

"That's it right there, Namira's ring. It's one of the artifacts I seek." I said.

He looked at it from afar, as did I. We both knew it could easily be a trap. He raised his hand, and blasted a small gust of wind at it. The ring fell off the pedestal, and sure enough, a trap was sprung. A large, bladed pendulum came down from the ceiling and sliced directly in front of the pedestal. Had we been closer, the pendulum would've sliced us in half.

I walked forward and dove over the pendulum as it swung. I landed on the other side of the pedestal and grabbed Namira's Ring. I smiled and stood up, and saw a monster sneaking up on Vaati

"Look out!!" I yelled.

He immediately dove forward, narrowly avoiding a decapitating blow from the creature, and turned to face it. It was a living suit of armor, and it had a battle axe with it.

I heard Xalces chuckle, and say "You two love birds have fun now."

(Great...so he's responsible for this...) I thought, as I jumped back over the pendulum.

The two of us dispatched it monster with ease, It swung it's axe at me and I jumped up, avoiding the slash and landing on the bladed end of the axe. I ran along the handle and kicked the armor in the head with great force, causing it to lurch back. While it was staggered, Vaati jumped into the air with his own sword, surrounded it in wind energy, and brought it down on the monster, slicing it in half. It fell apart, dead. and Vaati and I hastily fled from the cave, not wanting anymore trouble now that we had the ring. We stepped outside and I glanced at the ring in my hand. (Count your days Xalces...because their numbered...) I thought, as Vaati and I stepped further back into the woods.

1:30 P.M. 6/11

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So yeah, there we go. Raveness's backstory is revealed.

NOW LEAVE A REVIEW!


	10. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I DO own everything mentioned in this fic. The plot and custom-made characters are NOT used with the permission of their creators... Ok opposite day is over now. Bout time too I was getting sick of talking like that...**

_Note: This chapter was written by me (ZOMG! I'm the author of this fic and I actually WROTE a chapter myself. Unheard of I know.)_

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Chapter 9

Vaati

1:35 P.M. 6/11

I glanced back over at Raveness, for what was probably the billionth time, as we walked through the woods together. She kept on staring at the ring in her hand that we'd gotten out of the cave 15 minutes ago, although she would occasionally turn and look at me. (I wonder why she goes through so much trouble for a couple of trinkets...) I thought. Twice now I'd saved her from dying

"Hey, how come your all alone out here?" I decided to ask her.

If whatever she was planning to do was this dangerous why hadn't she brought anyone with her?

"What do you mean?" she replied, looking up at me.

"Well...it's just that it's dangerous out here...why didn't you bring someone with you?" I said back to her.

"Well... mostly because I've been alone most of my life..." Raveness said.

(She's been alone, all her life?) I thought.

"Why? you seem like the kind of person who'd have a lot of friends" I asked her.

"I'd really rather not talk about it..." Raveness said, with the same tone she'd used when I questioned her on why she was gathering all these strange items in the first place.

"It's ok... I guess I understand, you know-" I started to continue the sentence, when Raveness suddenely grabbed me and pushed me to the side, diving onto the ground and rolling, back to her feet. I was about to ask her why she did these things, when a massive tree branch crashed to the ground, right on the spot where the two of us had been standing.

"Well that was strange...thanks I guess" I said to Raveness.

It was odd saying the word "thanks", I couldn't recall ever doing it before.

"No problem...I'm used to situations like that." She replied.

We started walking further into the woods again, not saying anything.

"So... how come your out here by yourself?" Raveness asked me.

I stumbled forward a little, not expecting that question. (I can't tell her, the truth...It'd scare her off...) I thought. I kept silent for a few minutes hoping she wouldn't pursue the matter any further, but she kept staring at me expecting an answer.

"Well, I've been alone most of my life too" I finally said to her.

"How come?" she said curously.

(Because I tend to want to kill every one I see, and I tried to take to take over my home country) I thought.

But I merely replied "Well, when you tell me why you've always been alone I'll tell you why I've always been alone."

(Now that I think about it I've yet to have any murderous thoughts in a while) I thought. I took a few minutes to think about some of the things that happened an hour or two ago, when I'd first followed Raveness into the cave. I remembered how odd she acted. Apologising to me and whatnot... I don't think that's ever happened to me before since my childhood as a Minish. This woman seemed...different from other humans. After that I thought about the pitfall...and the kiss that followed it. Again, it was quite an odd thing to do, but there was something inside me...some feeling of some sort...that liked it.

"Hey that's not fair!" I heard Raveness say laughing.

I snapped back to our conversation.

"It seems fair to me" I said chuckling.

1:50 P.M. 6/11

I was about to say more when I heard a twig snap, nearby... very nearby. I tensed up, I had a bad feeling. I raised my hand and notioned for Raveness to stop moving.

"Hmm?... what's wrong Vaati?" she said.

I didn't answer her, I just listened...There was silence...Dead silence. All of a sudden I felt a break in the wind, I ducked as quickly as I could and sure enough a small object flew over my head. A small, round, blue object with an iron mask on.

"Meta Knight..." I said, as I stood up to face him.

"Hmph, your not getting away this time basterd!" Meta Knight said.

He lunged forward towards me, stabbing forward. I side-stepped and made no counter-attack.

"If I recall correctly you ran away in our last fight" I said, taunting him.

"Well if you would have played fair, I wouldn't have." He snapped back at me.

"Doing whatever it takes to win is just a part of fighting..." I said back to him, as I drew my katana.

"What's going on?..." I heard Raveness say.

(Damn I forgot she was there) I thought,

"Get back" I said to her. I glanced over at her, she hadn't moved.

"Well well well...And what do we have here?" Meta Knight said glaring at her.

"Leave her out of this...She's done nothing to you..." I said, glaring back at him.

"And Rikku did anything to you? That didn't stop you..." He said back.

"She attacked me..." I replied, gritting my teeth.

"And you deserved it! traitor!" he said back.

He dashed towards Raveness, his sword drawn. I lunged as quickly as I could, and blocked a slash, meant for her.

"I SAID GET BACK!" I yelled back at Raveness.

This time she complied, stepping backwards out of Meta Knight's reach. (Good...now I can teach this ass-hole not to mess with me.) I thought, as I shoved Meta Knight back across the ground.

"If it's a fight you want, congratulations your getting it!!!" I said as I took up a defensive stance.

"The pleasure is all yours!!!" He said, as he rushed towards me swinging his sword wildly.

I blocked the first slash that was close enough to me to hit me, and shoved forward to knock Meta Knight off of his stance. I slashed back towards him, but he back-flipped away, and rushed me again sending a kick to my chest. I grabbed his foot, and slung him in the opposite direction, slamming him hard into the ground. I rushed to send a killing stab, into his back but he twirled around on the ground slashing at my feet and I was forced to hop backwards.

He ran towards me and hopped into the air, sending a slash towards my head. I bent my knees and ducked under, bringing my sword up to counter his. Our swords clashed, and he turned in mid-air and slashed again as he hit the ground. I tried to turn in time to block, but couldn't. I ended up with a slash wound in my side, but I would have to grope over it later. Showing any sign of weakness would equal death. I quickly regained my stance, and waited for him to make his next move. He slashed downwards toward's me, charging yet again. (He really likes being offensive.) I thought, as I continuously blocked his slashes. I brought my hand forward and sent a wind blast, towards him. It hit him point-blank, and he flew back until he hit a tree. I immidietly sent several wind blades after him, most of which again hit him. He had several cuts on his face, that cut through his mask, and I could tell he was getting angrier. He sprouted his wings, as he had done in our previous fight, and flew upwards in the air. He rocketed down towards me out of the air. I thrusted my hand towards him to again fire another wind blade, but he immidietly evaded to the right when he saw me move my hand. The wind blade left a deep cut into a tree, but it missed him. (It seems the fool has finally figured it out...) I thought, as I fired more which he continuously dodged.

Finally he got near me, he slashed towards me again but I side-stepped it, only to be grabbed and thrown into the air quickly. Meta Knight flew upwards after me, I slashed towards him with my sword, but he countered it, and knocked me further into the air. (As long as I'm free-falling like this he has an advantage with those damn wings.) I thought. I blocked more slashes, and threw myself, onto the branch of a near-by tree sprawling to my feet. Fortunately many of the trees in these woods were big, so the branches were big enough where I could stand up and keep my balance. Meta Knight, flew and landed on another branch, on a tree directly across from me. He quickly jumped, and slashed towards me. I hopped up, onto another branch directly above the one I was one, just as it fell to the ground. I jumped back, as Meta Knight hopped up to the same branch I was on, and advanced towards me, slashing with incredible speed. The steel of our blades clanged loudly, as we swiped at each other continuously. I jumped backwards off of the branch, onto another one behind me. When Meta Knight tried to follow me, I fired another blast of wind, and knocked him backwards, breaking the branch the two of us had previously been battling on.

"Meta!" I heard a voice cry out.

I glanced towards the direction the sound came from, to see Rikku partially hidden behind a tree. She'd stuck her head out to see how the fight was going. I looked back at Meta, I could tell he'd seen me look at Rikku, because he now had an expression of worry on his face, which quickly turned to an expression of anger.

"Hurrrr! I told you to stay hidden and not come out unless I needed you!" he said to Rikku.

She was close, only a few yards away from the tree I was on. I looked at Meta Knight with an evil smirk, and jumped down, to the ground dashing over to where she was. She gasped, and tried to draw one of her weapons, but I kicked it out of her hand, and seized her. Holding her by her arm and her stomach with one hand, and holding my katana in the other.

I turned back to show Meta Knight my prize, and immidietly got a look of shock on my face. Meta Knight was standing there, holding Raveness, his sword up to her throat.

"Too slow" he said, returning the smirk I'd just given to him.

"Harm so much as a hair on her and your bitch over here dies." I said, gritting my teeth.

"I could say the same thing to you..." He replied.

Once again, the urge to kill was overtaking my mind. The urge to stab this girl, to let her blood run over my sword and through my fingers, to watch as Meta Knight fell to his knees in sorrow. I knew he was bluffing, I could remember the look of worry he'd gotten on his face when we were battling. I raised my sword, ready to deal a killing blow, when I looked at Raveness. She had a look of horror on her face, a look of fear, she had no idea what was even happening.

"Your gonna pay for killing Ramza... Meta will beat you..." I heard Rikku say.

I tightened my grip on her to get her to shut up. (Hmm? I havn't killed anyone...not yet anyway...) I thought. but I couldn't get Raveness's look out of my mind. (I don't care... this girl deserves to die... she dared to stand against me... just like all those people in the Minish Village...) I thought. But the way Raveness had talked to me earlier had been...soothing. And the way her lips had felt when we kissed... I lowered my sword away from Rikku's throat.

"It seems we've reached a stalemate little knight..." I said to Meta Knight.

"I wouldn't call it that... tell you what, you let go of Rikku and I'll let go of this girl..." Meta Knight said.

"And how do I know I can trust you to let go of Raveness when I unhand Rikku?" I said back to him.

"You can't...but I can't trust you either..." He said back to me.

"Fine then we'll trade" I said to him.

"Deal" he said back.

Slowly, but surely we started edging toward each other...We got closer...And closer... We were walking for what felt like hours. I watched his every move, trying to spy any signs of deception, but I found none. That didn't make me feel much better however. Finally we were merely a couple of inches from each other.

"On three..." Meta Knight said, glaring at me. "One...Two...Three!"

Neither one of us did anything.

"What happened to on 3?" I said to him.

"Hmph...One...Two...Three!"

I let go of Rikku and shoved her forward, as Meta did the same to Raveness. Immidietly I grabbed her, and thrusted her behind me. Rikku took a position by Meta Knight's side, a look of fear on her face. I notioned for Raveness to start backing up, and she complied. I slowly followed her watching Meta Knight and Rikku as they inched towards another direction. Again for what felt like hours we continued inching, this time away from one another. Finally I turned away, to lead Raveness into the woods, so we could find a hiding spot.

"HAAAAA!" I heard voice say, from behind me. Meta Knight's voice.

I turned as quickly as I could, and send a strong wind blast at him. It nailed him and he flew, and impacted hard against a tree. I smirked, when all of a sudden, I noticed a small object, flying low to the ground towards me. I felt a huge pain in my leg as it hit me and glanced down to see a small dagger stabbed into my knee-cap. It was one of Rikku's, the one I had kicked to the ground. Meta had kicked it at me before I'd hit him. I was losing blood rather quickly.

" Meta!" "Vaati!" Rikku and Raveness said simultaneously.

I felt light-headed...and my eye-sight was going dim. I felt Raveness, holding me. I glanced back at Rikku, she was holding Meta who wasn't moving. (Heh...Stubborn ass-hole...) I thought, as I slowly lost consciousness.

4:00 P.M. 6/11

I opened my eyes, slowly. I had a sharp pain around my knee. I sat up. I was in the woods... what happened to me... (Oh yeah, I got in a fight with that jerk and I lost consciousness...) I thought. I remembered it all now, but this was a different spot in the woods then the one where the fight happened.

"Oh! your awake" I heard a female voice say.

I turned to see who spoke, to find Raveness sitting next to a tree looking at me.

"Ow... what happened?" I said to her.

"You lost consciousness after the fight, I was worried if that masked fighter came back he would kill you, so I moved you to a different spot in the woods." She replied back to me in a worried tone of voice.

"Oh...I see..." I said, standing up.

"Don't move too much please Vaati, your still hurt pretty bad" She said.

I glanced down at my leg. It had been bandaged up in several places.

"I'll be fine" I said.

I tried stepping forward, and succeeded but, pain shot through my leg every time I took a step with the injured leg.

"Whoever that was got you good... what was up with all that anyway?" Raveness asked me, as she stepped forward to help me walk.

"It's a long story... basically theres a mansion on one side of these woods, where a bunch of people are staying. If anyone staying in that mansion sees me, they'll attack me... But apparently that blue warrior Meta Knight, decided to hunt me down...I'm sure theres a certain man in green hunting me down too." I said to her, as she helped me stumble around our new site.

I was trying to get used to the pain.

"Man...What did you do to them?..." She said.

"I'd rather not say..." I said back to her.

(Damn knight... I hope that last blow killed him...) I thought as we walked. (What I wouldn't give to destroy that fool... to, cut him up into little peices and pick my teeth with his bones...)

"I could help you you know..." I heard a voice say.

It sounded like an old man. But there was noone around except for me and Raveness...at least that's what I thought...

"Hmm? who said that?!?!..." Raveness said as the two of us looked around frantically for the cause of the voice.

"Well do you want my help or not?..." The voice said again.

It seemed like it was coming from...well everywhere. The sounds waves were coming from every single direction. I looked over at Raveness, who seemed scared. Well at least I wasn't going crazy, she apparently heard it again too. I stood up straight and spoke back.

"What are you talking about? Where are you? and Who are you for that matter?" I said, to pretty much thin air.

"Are you stupid or something mortal? I'm trying to help you..." The voice said back.

So it seemed it could understand and hear me.

"WELL I GET THAT! BUT AT THE MOMENT I HAVE A WEIRD DISEMBODIED VOICE SPEAKING TO ME!" I said back to it, frustrated.

"Hey don't get that tone of voice with me mortal! be glad I'm offering my assitance!" It said back.

"Come out here and show yourself whoever the hell you are!" I said back to it.

"MY NAME IS BESTIVOUS MORTAL, AND YOU'LL DO BEST TO REMEMBER IT WELL! I'M SPEAKING TO YOU TWO DIRECTLY THROUGH YOUR MINDS!!!" The voice said back.

I got an immense headache from that screaming. It wasn't a very believable story, but I didn't have much of a choice but to beleive it at the moment. "GRR...fine just stop yelling! and elaborate yourself!..." I said back to this "Bestivous", as I clutched my still pounding head.

"Well you see mortal, I've been watching you these past few days and you...Interest me, so I've decided to help you out." The voice said.

"Oh really...and how are you going to go about doing that if I can't even see you!"I said back.

"I can give you anything you want, Vaati... I can give you the power to destroy everyone you want, if you so choose to take it." Bestivous said.

Great, this old man knew my name too.

"No thanks, I'm through taking power from someone else." I said back.

"But I'm much different then Ganondorf... I actually keep my promises, so long as my clients hold up their end of the bargain." Bestivous said.

"OK WHAT IS GOING ON HERE! HOW DO YOU KNOW SO MUCH ABOUT ME!!" I said enraged.

How in the world could this guy know about my incident with Ganondorf.

"Come to the attic of the mansion and we'll talk face to face Vaati..." Bestivous said.

"Mansion? What mansion?!?!" I said back. There was no answer...only silence.

Somehow, I just had a feeling the mansion he had referred to was the one where all those Smashers were at. I turned back to Raveness, who was looking at me with an odd look on her face.

"Well I guess he's gone..." I said to her.

"That was...strange... your not actually gonna go back to that mansion are you?" She said to me.

"Yes, I am going back..." I replied.

"But you said if someone saw you there they'd try to kill you." She said with a worried tone of voice.

"Yes I'm aware of that, but whoever the hell that guy was, he knew too much for his own good...I wanna know more about him...so I'm going back." I said to Raveness.

"But your leg is still injured, you can't go" she said.

"My leg feels fine" I lied.

"Well...if your so determined to go, then fine. But I'm going with you!"

"Are you sure?... It's probabaly going to be dangerous..." I replied to her.

"I know...but I'm going anyway!" She said firmly.

"Fine..." I finally said to her.

Something told me I wasn't gonna change her mind. I reached for my cloak, only to discover I couldn't find it. (Damn...where'd I leave it at? I'll need it if I'm gonna sneak in.) I thought. (Maybe I lost it at the battle site...) I asked Raveness if she could take me back there. It'd be easier to get back to the mansion from there anyway, because I could just re-trace my steps, since Raveness had brought me here unconscious I really had no idea what spot of the woods we were in.

4:30 P.M. 6/11

She agreed, and we began walking together. I tried my hardest not to limp. My leg really did feel a little bit better, but there was still a lot of pain in it whenever I tried to walk. We walked for about 20 minutes before we finally came back to the familiar site where the battle had just taken place. (Damn, she really took me far...) I thought, surprised that she could carry me such a distance. I looked around, the ground, there were spots of blood here and there, and a decent sized pool of it in spot. That pool was probably mine... but I didn't see my cloak anywhere. (Where else could I have left it at?) I thought. Well there was the two caves I had ventured into with Raveness. But if I had lost it in one of them, then the chances of finding it was pretty slim. There was the spring where I had slept the night before, I could have left it there. It was fairly close to the mansion anyway. I decided I'd check there, and if it wasn't there I would just have to sneak into the mansion without it.

I motioned for Raveness to follow me, and we began walking in the direction the spring had been. About 15 minutes later we finally arrived at the spring. I looked all over the ground, and near the edge of the water. Finally I saw it, it was laying near a rock. I walked over and picked it up, dusting it off. and Raveness and I continued walking. Finally we came to the edge of the woods, the mansion was in view.

I turned back to Raveness and said "You ready?"

She merely nodded her head and throw her cloak over her head. It didn't cover most of her body and her face like mine did, but really she didn't have to worry as much as me. The only people that would recognize her was Meta Knight and Rikku, and with some luck Meta Knight might not even be alive anymore. I threw my cloak over my body, and the two of us stepped out into the backyard of the mansion. There was no back door, so we were forced to go around and go in the front door. I stepped towards the staircase, and glanced into the main living room. It seemed like everyone was in there, all with their heads bowed. Some of them were crying. In the middle of the room were two open caskets. I couldn't see what they looked like, but I could tell their were people inside them. (Well Rikku did say something about some guy dying...) I thought. But she only mentioned one person...And their were two caskets...Who could the other one be? (Meta Knight perhaps?) I thought, with an evil grin. I turned back, Raveness was already up the staircase, and was looking at me waiting on me to follow.

I continued, and we walked up staircase after staircase, floor after floor. I counted them all as we went, until we finally got to the top floor. There were ten floors in all, the entrance to the attic had to be up here somewhere. I glanced around, and didn't see anyone else up here with me except for Raveness. Good, they all must be really be downstairs mourning.

"Alright... Look for an entrance" I whispered to Raveness.

We opened every single doorway we could find. There was probably somewhere between 10-15 doors in this one hallway, and a dead end where the next staircase was on all the other floors. We opened every single door, but they all opened up, to rooms...none of them lead to an attic. The two of us looked, and looked but we could find no entrance.

"Maybe... he was talking about a different mansion after all..." I whispered to Raveness.

"Then we came all this way for nothing?" she whispered back.

"I guess so... we should leave." I replied to her.

The two of us turned to walk back down the staircase going down to the 9th floor, when I heard a crash behind us. We turned around, to see a small staircase, coming out of the ceiling at the dead end. Raveness looked at me, with a curious look on her the face, and the two of us approached the stairs. I looked up them, to find a dark room, with alot of cobwebs.

"Well I guess we found it afterall..." I whispered to Raveness as I began stepping up the stairs, she followed me up quickly.

When we stepped into the attic, the staircase behind us flew back up, cutting off the exit. The only light in the room was coming from a window on the opposite side of the attic.

"Well we're here Mr. Bestivous... Now it's about damn time you explained yourself." I said outloud.

"Hmm...Yes I suppose your right" I heard the same voice as I heard back in the woods say.

Out of nowhere, a portal opened up in the middle of the attic and out of it came, an old, kinda short man. Or I suppose "floated" would be a better word for it. He was riding on top of a white cloud that hovered a little above the ground. He had a long bushy white moustache across his upper-lip, and a green sphere with a star on it was on his head where his hair should be.

"As I told you earlier mortal, my name is Bestivous! and I've been watching you for a while now. You interested me, so I looked into your past..." The old man said.

"And how can you do all of these things?" I ask him.

"That's none of your concern mortal! All you need to know is that I can help you...I can give you anything you want...For a price." Bestivous said to me.

How did I know there was gonna be a catch?

"Yes yes, I've established that much but you've yet to explain!" I said to him.

"Fine fine, hold your horses...Damn mortals and their impatiance... Anyways Vaati you see, I have many powers...One of them is the ability to send people through time. But you see, problems often arise in the timeline, so sometimes when I need to get rid of one I get a warrior to do it in exchange for power." Bestivous replied to me.

"So what your saying to me is...If I go run an errand through time for you, you'll give me power?" I said to Bestivous.

"If that is what you want then yes... You see if you agree to the bargain, I will send you to a point in time where someone or something is happening that will endanger the future...And if you fix it you can have whatever your heart desires...If you can't fix it...Well...You'll die" Bestivous said.

"And how can I trust you to keep your promises after I finish the job?" I asked him.

"You can't. How do I know I can trust you not to screw around with the time-line once you enter the portal? I can't." He replied to me.

"Is...Is it going to be dangerous?" I heard Raveness say from behind me.

This was the first time she'd gotten the nerve to speak to this old coot.

"Yes, yes it is darling but nothing in the world comes cheap...Well? Do we have a deal or not?" Bestivous asked me.

I thought for a few minutes.

"Fine, we have a deal" I said to him.

"Good, good...I already have your job picked out, so tell me, what do you desire most for your reward." Bestivous asked me.

"You said I can have anything my heart desires correct?" I asked him back.

"Yes yes, that is true, ANYTHING you want." He send back bluntly.

"Fine then, in that case I want immortality... But not just for me."I turned to Raveness. "For her as well."

Raveness gasped and said "Vaati! Is- is that...Possible?...Are you sure?" She asked me.

"If you'll accept it with me, then yes I am sure" I said back to her.

Bestivous pouted and groaned.

"Is there a problem? You said I could have anything." I said to him.

"Yes yes I know I know...I was just expecting something different... Fine fine, do the job, and I'll make you and your lady friend immortal." He said.

"Good, in that case, we're good to go." I said.

Bestivous turned and raised his hand and a portal opened up in the back corner of the room.

"Whenever your ready, just step through the portal...You'll be returned here when the quest is over. All you have to do, is step through the portal, find whaever is causing the trouble in the area and fix it. Then your finished." Bestivous explained to me.

"Gotcha" I said, as Raveness and I stepped forward towards the portal.

Bestivous quickly hopped in the middle of Raveness and I.

"Oh sorry, I forgot to mention. I only offered the quest to Vaati, therefor he must do it by himself, you can't go with him." Bestivous said to Raveness.

That made me angry.

"WHAT?!?!, YOU DIDN'T THINK THAT WAS AN IMPORTANT THING TO MENTION EARLIER?!?!?!" I yelled.

"I suppose it slipped my mind" He replied.

"So...I just wait here, for him to return?" Raveness said.

"Oh no, it will be dangerous here for you shortly, I'll teleport you back to the spot in the woods where I first conversed with you and your violent friend. And when he returns I'll teleport him too." Bestivous said.

That just made me even angrier.

"YOU CAN TELEPORT PEOPLE TOO?!?!?! WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU TELEPORT US IN HERE INSTEAD OF MAKING OF MAKING US WALK! WE COULD HAVE DIED IF WE'D BEEN FOUND!!!" I again yelled at him.

"Do you ever shut up boy? It was will-power, I wanted to see if you wanted this bad enough to risk your life for it." He replied to me calmy.

It was official, I hated this old man's guts, and if I didn't leave soon I would spill them all over the floor. Raveness walked over to me and embraced me in a hug.

"Calm down Vaati... He's just an old man..." She whispered in my ear.

I closed my eyes, and opened them about a minute later, now much calmer.

"Thank you..." I said to her.

"Good luck" she said to me with a smile, before turning to Bestivous and nodding her head.

"Ok, I guess I'm ready to be sent back..." She said to him.

Bestivous raised his hand again, and in a flash Raveness had vanished. I turned back to the still open portal next to me and prepared to enter.

"I'll be going now...but first, what did you mean when you said it would be dangerous for Raveness here?" I asked Bestivous.

"Oh you know... This mansion is dangerous for the two of you...What if someone came up here?" He said to me.

"No this mansion is dangerous for ME. Only two people know of Raveness's current affiliation with me..." I said to Bestivous.

He stayed quiet, he was hiding something I could tell. No matter, it seemed he was intent on not telling me, since he stayed quiet for about 5 minutes, so I shrugged the thought off and walked into the portal that lay before me. As soon as I stepped in, there was a flash of bright light, and I felt light-headed... I turned to get out of here, but there nothing but bright light all around me. I could feel myself losing consciousness...Slowly...Until...

5:00 P.M. 6/11

---

Despite popular belief Bestivous actually ISN'T a custom made character like Raveness or Mell and Ultima. He's from Super Paper Mario. (He was the guy that gave you the power to flip into 3-D in the very first level.)

Anyways, leave a review and let me know what you think!...Please?


	11. Author notes and a small announcement

Hey everybody. Omega here

Sorry I haven't been uploading anything lately. I've been insanely busy ever since Thanksgiving that finding the time to write chapters was getting hard. But I assure you their still coming. Up until now, I've had one chapter a week put up and I'll try to get back to that as quickly as I can. But for now all 3 of you waiting on your seats for the next chapter, will have to wait another week or two between chapters. As far as I can tell, I'll be busy up until early 2008, but I'll still be writing. Just much slower...

BUT I didn't go to all the trouble of typing this up, just say "lol sorry." I got a little mini-announcement to make. From now on I'll be taking questions from any reader that wants to know anything about me or this fic.

What this means is that if you have a question about this fic. Like maybe you were confused about a plot-point (Chapter 3 will do that to ya.) Or maybe you just wanna know something about a character. Like why did I make Meta Knight such a jerk? Or why Shadow acts so goofy. Or maybe you just wanna know something about me!

Anyways, if you have a question you can ask it through either a review (you have my word they won't be reported as spam.) Or through a private message. When enough questions have been asked, I'll do a special chapter devoted solely to answering them. So ask away:P

As for the next real chapter. We're looking at maybe late next week, to early the week after before it gets here.

Well that's all I got to say. Ciao for now!


	12. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of this stuff. Please don't sue me. The plot and original characters are used with permission.

Sorry for the rather long wait. I ended up getting a bit more free time on my hands this week, and it turned out to be enough to get the chapter done a bit earlier then I said it would. This one was again written by me.

**---**

**Chapter 10**

Meta Knight

4:30 P.M. 6/11

Slowly, I opened my eyes. The last thing I could remember was battling with that bastard Vaati in the forest. (Oh yeah...I smacked my head kinda hard, after I saved Rikku. I remember now.) I thought. But that happened in the forest...I was in a bed now. (Where am I?) I thought. This definitely wasn't the mansion. I sat up in the bed, to try to figure out where I was. It was a nice sun-filled room, with two beds. There was a big window, behind the two beds. A ceiling fan was on above me, and the room seemed to connect to another one. I moved around, and surprisingly I felt perfectly normal, it was almost as if I hadn't been injured at all. I pushed the covers of the bed away and stepped onto the ground. There was a small set of stairs near the beds, that led down to what appeared to be a bar. Standing behind the bar was some sort of blue creature. It kinda resembled a humanoid frog, it's skin was blue all over and it had webbed feet. It's eyes were kinda bulged out, and wide like a frog's were, but it had two small circles on the side's of it's head for ears and two small antenna's on top of it's head. It had a scarf around it's neck, and it was wearing a pair of brown over-alls.

The creature looked at me as I walked down the stairs and said. "Helloz there howz iz you feeling?" In a very odd and funny accent. It drew out seemly random words in it's sentences. It had a male type voice.

"Umm...I feel perfectly fine I guess...whoever you are..." I said back to him.

"Good, Good Mz Yuna, and Mz Rikku were worried about you. Theyz were in here for hourz." The creature said back to me.

(So, Rikku and her friend had been here...Rikku must have brought me here after the fight, but that still didn't answer the question of where "here" was.) I thought. I decided to continue into another room instead of asking this verbally-confused creature. There was a door off to the side of the bar. I walked up to it and it opened by it's self when I got near. (Reminds me of my old flag-ship...) I thought as I stepped through. The door led to a hallway, that dead-ended at an elevator. I walked inside of it, I stared at the buttons and pressed one labeled "deck". (All of this seems awfully familar...) I thought, as the elevator doors closed, and the elevator began moving up. When the elevator stopped, the doors opened up into a short hallway, that led into a big room. I could hear voices coming from it, normal ones. Although I couldn't quite make out what they were saying.

" Rikku! fryd ryja E dumt oui ypuid pnehkehk cdnyhkanc ehdu dra Celsius?!?!?!" I heard a male voice yell.

" Ur! lyh ed ymnayto! oui yld mega ra'c kuhhy fnalg dra bmyla!" I heard a female voice say.

I recognized it. It was Rikku's voice, but what in the world was she saying? Curious I stepped out into the room the voices were coming from. It was a big room, there two small sets of stairs, on a raised portion of the room, where I was. Below the stairs, were all sorts of controls and computers and stuff. At the very front of the room were several seats, and no window in front. I could tell what this place was now, It was an airship. I could recognize it because the although the design was different, it had many similarities with my old war-ship the Halberd. The ship wasn't moving however, and seeing as how it had been landed next to the mansion it was likely we were still there. There were 5 people in the room. Off to the side, leaning against the wall was Rikku's friend Paine. Near the center Yuna was standing, facing the center of the room. In the center was Rikku, and a short man with a blonde Mohawk in mechanic's over-alls. He had goggles over his eyes. Over in a corner, was another man with goggles on his eyes. He was darker-skinned then the others, and had on some purple flying clothes.

Yuna was the first to notice me. She looked at me and said "Oh! your up Meta!" Everyone in the room turned to look at me after Yuna said that.

Rikku dashed up the steps, and picked me up hugging me tightly. "Meta! your ok!"

I squirmed around, in her arms finally breaking out of them and back onto the ground. "Don't do that... And why wouldn't I be ok?" I said back to her

"Well you hit your head pretty hard... Me and Yunie had a hard time healing you... and sorry... I can't help but want to hug you when your mask is off!, you just look so cuddly!" Rikku replied.

I felt my face with my hand. (HEY!! MY MASK IS GONE!) I thought. Not only that my gloves were too, so was my sword.

"Let me get one thing straight... I. AM. NOT. CUDDLY. Now where's my armor at?" I said back to her.

"It was laying next to the bed we put you in. You didn't see it?" She said back to me.

(I guess I missed it...I'll have to go back to the room and get it) I thought. "So why did you bring me to your airship?" I asked Rikku.

"She thought it might hurt your pride, if everyone at the mansion saw you injured, so she brought you here instead." I heard Paine say from the corner.

(She did that for me?...) I thought. I opened my mouth to say something, but got interrupted by the short man. "E fyhd res uid!" He said, pointing to me.

"Ur! Crid ib ymnayto!" Rikku said back to the man.

The two of them began yelling back and forth at each other in whatever strange language they were speaking. I turned away, and looked at Yuna, who walked up the small set of steps next to me.

"Don't worry about them, they argue all the time." Yuna said to me assuringly.

"Who is that odd man anyway?" I asked Yuna.

"Oh that's Brother...He's Rikku's...well...umm her brother." Yuna said. "Oh, and that guy over there is Buddy, he helps navigate the ship."

"Hi, there" I heard Buddy say from across the room.

"Why are they talking in all those funny words?" I asked Yuna.

"That's the Al Bhed language, it's their native tongue. Brother doesn't speak very much English." Yuna replied.

I nodded, and listened to the two of them argue for a couple of minutes before finally becoming annoyed and saying "Rikku?...Can we leave now?"

She turned to me and said "Umm...Sure, if you feel good enough!...don't we need to get your stuff out of the extra bedroom first?"

"Yeah...I need it." I replied back to her.

"Yna oui rybbo hof? Fa'na veqehk du mayja!" Rikku said to Brother, before turning, and walking down the small hallway towards the elevator.

I began following her, and Yuna followed me.

As I passed Brother, I heard him mutter "Meddma nihd" under his breath.

Regardless, I pretended I hadn't heard it, and we continued to the elevator. The three of us stepped in the elevator and Rikku pressed one of the buttons. The doors closed, and the elevator began moving down.

"Your brother is a strange person..." I said to Rikku.

"You'll get used to him... He isn't always that annoying." She said back to me.

"That language you spoke...that Al Bhed.." I said to her.

"What about it?" Rikku replied.

"Could you...teach me some?... sometime?..." I asked her, in a low tone of voice.

"Sure thing Meta! It'll be fun!" Rikku said back to me excitedly.

"Hey Rikku, I got an idea." Yuna said to Rikku. She walked over to Rikku and whispered something into her ear.

Rikku got a smile on her face and nodded, as the elevator doors finally opened up again back at the area I had woken up in. We stepped, back up the steps towards where the beds were. The blue creature that was in front of the bar was gone now. When we got to the top of the stairs I glanced at the bed I'd woken up in, and sure enough all my armor and weaponry were next to it laid against the wall.

I walked up to the bed to pick them up, but before I could I heard Rikku say "Hey Meta, could you come over here a second?"

"Sure" I said back to her. She was standing on the other side of the second bed.

I walked over to where she was and said "What is it?"

"Oh, um look at that over there!" She said pointing to a spot on the wall over the bar.

I stared at the spot, for a few seconds and said "I don't see anythi-"

I couldn't finish because Rikku put her hand around my shoulder and quickly spun me around, facing the steps where Yuna was standing with a camera. The camera flashed, and Yuna and Rikku laughed.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!?!" I asked the two of them.

"We wanted a picture of you, but we didn't think you'd go with it willingly" Rikku said, smiling.

She was right, I hated having my picture taken, but that didn't give them the right to trick me into it. The picture came out of the camera, and Yuna pulled it out and showed it to Rikku and me. The picture was of us two, standing in front of the big window. Rikku had her arm around my shoulder, leaning on me, and had a big smile on her face. I was just kinda standing there, a look of surprise on my face, and a small smile on my face. Why the smile was there, I had no clue, but apparently I had smiled. Rikku and Yuna looked at the picture and laughed again, before setting it, and the camera down.

"Can I please get my stuff back now?" I asked the two of them frustrated.

"Yeah, sure. Hey Yunie we'll catch you later, go ahead and go." Rikku said.

"Ok, I'll see you two later." Yuna said, still giggling. She turned and walked down the stairs and out of the room.

I sighed, and walked back over to my gear, putting all my armor back on and putting my sheathed sword back on.

"Oh come on Meta, no need to be so grumpy. It was just a picture" Rikku said.

I opened my mouth to say something but got interupted by a voice that said "You two are very odd mortals..."

I looked at Rikku, she had a startled look on her face. There was no way she was the one who'd said that, the voice sounded like an old man's.

"Who's there!" I said, to pretty much thin air.

The same voice from before sighed and said" Sheez do all mortals freak out at disembodied voices?"

"Typically yes..." I said back.

"Fine, then I'll make this quick. My name is Bestivous, and I've been watching you Meta Knight." The voice said.

"How so? And how do you know my name? And where are you for that matter?" I said back to this "Bestivous."

"Because I have magic powers. Not only can I see things, I can also speak into people's minds, like I am now to you and your friend over there." Bestivous said back.

"And why have you been watching me?" I asked Bestivous.

"Because you interest me mortal. I decided I would offer you my help." He said back.

"Help me with what? Scaring people?" I said back.

"Shut up mortal before I change my mind! I decided to help you defeat your current enemy. The man known as Vaati." Bestivous said back.

I chuckled and said "No thanks, I can handle him myself."

"Then why has Rikku had to intervene twice now?" He said back in a mocking tone. "Vaati didn't need anyone to help him, and he kept up with you just fine."

"Shut up!, What do you know!" I yelled back at him.

"Oh I know quite a bit actually. Regardless, I came to offer you power. If your interested, come to the attic of the mansion." Bestivous said.

"And if I don't come? What then?" I said back to Bestivous.

I waited, but there was no answer. (I guess he's tired of talking) I thought. I turned and started walking down the steps back to the bar of the room I was in.

"Your not really thinking about going are you? I heard Rikku say. She was following me.

"Yes I am. That bastard knows too much for his own good, and I plan on getting to the bottom of who he is." I said back to her.

"Well I'm coming with you!" She said firmly.

"No your not. This could get dangerous, I'm going by myself." I said back just as firm.

"Exactly, it could be dangerous! I'm going with you" Rikku replied.

"Are you sure your up for it? If it's a trap we'll have to fight our way out." I said back to her.

"Yes, I'm up for it. Hang on a second." She said.

She closed her eyes, and all her clothes vanished in a bright light! My eyes widen in surprise, and I tripped and fell to the ground, in shock. However instead of becoming naked, some armor appeared on her out of the light along with a sword. I'd seen Yuna do this earlier, but I had no clue Rikku could do it as well.

Rikku opened her eyes, and giggled. "What's wrong?" she said to me.

"NOTHING, NOTHING!" I said back.

That just made her laugh more. "Well? Let's get going, I told Brother we were leaving anyway." She said to me when she was done.

"Fine fine, if your that determined..." I said to her. "Now how do we get out of here?"

"Come on, I'll show you." Rikku said, leading me back to the elevator.

She pushed another button, and the elevator again went down. Only this time, it continued going down, extending out of the airship and touching the ground outside of the mansion. The two of us stepped out, onto the yard of the mansion and began walking towards the front door.

5:00 P.M. 6/11

I glanced, at the back yard. There was a good number of people standing around two fresh gravestones. One said "R.I.P. Ramza" and the other said "R.I.P. Armond." (I guess we missed the funeral services...I wonder who the Armond guy is though? We only heard of Ramza dying.) I thought, as I looked back to the mansion. Regardless, the two of us continued into the mansion. We walked, up the flight of stairs all the way up until we reached the top floor. There were a few people on some of the floors, some heading to their rooms, others sobbing, probably from the funeral. But it was apparent most of them were either in their rooms, or outside in the back yard. When Rikku and I got to the last floor, I turned and to look down the hallway for a way up into the attic. Right at the very end there was a staircase going upwards, almost as if Bestivous was inviting us. I motioned for Rikku to follow me, and the two of us went up the stairs, up into a very dark and dusty attic.

When we got to the top, the stairs rose up, and closed behind us, closing our only possible exit save from a window across the room.

"Welcome Mr. Knight. I'm glad you decided to come." The same old man's voice from before said, as a portal opened up in the middle of the room, and a short stubby old man with a big white moustache floated out riding on top of what appeared to be a small cloud. Instead of hair, he had a green orb with a star on it on his head.

"I assume your Bestivous correct? Well I'm here, now get explaining on why the hell you summoned me here in the first place." I said to him.

"Fine fine, sheez, damn mortals are always so impatient. I asked you to come here because I have an offer for you." Bestivous said.

"Very well...what is it? I asked him.

"You see, I have the power to send other people to different places in time, and even to other dimensions. And sometimes problems arise in the past, that threaten the future. So someone has to go and fix them. So, I find someone I believe is worthy, of taking on the job, and send them to take care of it." Bestivous said.

"And you were hoping, I would be kind enough to do one of these jobs for you?" I said.

"Yes, but there's a reward of course." Bestivous said back to me.

"Oh really? You should have said so earlier...And what might this reward be?" I said to him.

"Anything you want it to be, money, power, romance, fame. You name it and it's yours. I warn you though it can get dangerous sometimes. I can't be held responsible if you die. Do we have a deal little warrior?" Bestivous replied.

I thought about it for a few minutes. I suppose it could be troublesome... but who knows? Maybe it would be worth it in the end.

"Yes...We have a deal" I said to him.

"Good good, now then, what do you want for your reward?" Bestivous asked me.

I thought for another few minutes, before finally saying "Power...I want more power...enough to crush my enemy." I said back to Bestivous.

"Very well then, finish the job and I'll increase your power considerably." Bestivous said.

He raised his hand, and a portal opened up in front of the window across the room.

"Step into the portal and you'll be sent to the problem area. Once there find out what's wrong, and fix it, and then I'll open another portal to teleport you back...Oh and before I forget, you have to go by yourself... Your friend over there can't go with you." Bestivous said.

I turned around and looked at Rikku who'd stayed quiet this whole time. She looked...pretty in her armor. She had a sad look on her face though.

"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine...Go back to the airship and wait for me to come back." I said to her.

"You sure?" She said to me in an uneasy tone of voice.

"I promise..." I said back to her.

"O...k...I guess..." She replied. She was still worried about me, I could tell.

The staircase opened back up, and Rikku finally walked back down it, after looking at me for a few minutes.

After she was gone, I turned back to Bestivous and said "Well...I'm ready"

He moved, off to the side and wished me luck, as I walked forward, and stepped into the open portal in front of me. Immidietly there was a white flash, and I got a killer headache. I could feel myself losing consciousness...slowly...blackness...

My eyes jolted open again, as I woke up. I was laying on the dirt. (What was I doing?...) I thought, confused. Oh yeah, I'd agreed to take that job. But that still didn't answer where I was... I picked myself off of the dirt and looked around. There was a bunch of trees everywhere. (Am I back in the woods, near the mansion?) I thought. No, that couldn't be it. The trees were much too big, and numerous for this to be woods. Not to mention it was unbelievably humid, and there were a lot of odd looking plants all around. This was not woods, this was definitely a jungle. I checked around, and unsheathed my sword. I needed to find out what was wrong, so I could fix it as quickly as I could. I wanted to spend as less time here as I possibly could. I started walking through the jungle, slicing through the thicker portions of it, in random directions. I needed to find some people as quickly as I could.

I kept going, like that and eventually I came to what looked like a small beach. There was sand everywhere, and the water was definitely salt water, by the smell. I turned, and started walking along the shoreline, and ended up going a circle. (So...I appear to be on a small circular island...) I thought, as I ended up back in the spot I had started from. I could tell from the footprints I had made in the sand. I decided to make another walk, and see if I could find any signs of life anywhere. When I had gotten a good ways around the island and looked up and noticed something. There was a small moutain, on the side with a cave at the bottem of it. What was strange about it though, was that it was carved into the shape, of an odd-looking head. The head looked like it was of an animal covered in fur, wit a little curl at the top of it's head. The mouth and nose were extended outwards from it's face. Even odder, a little ways across the water, directly across from this stone face was some sort of building. It too, was made to look an animal, some sort of humanoid crocodile.

I pondered what in the world all this could mean, when I heard a sound come from a bush, a little ways ahead. I turned, to see what was, to find a green creature come out of the bush, and stare at me. It looked like the weird building, like a humanoid crocodile. It walked on two legs, but it had a crocodile's body, along with sharp teeth, and claws and a tail. It stared at me and grunted, making odd noises before running dead at me. (Hmph, foolish little thing) I thought. It was dead long before it reached me. When it got in my range I unsheathed my sword, and stepped forward, swiping at the creature. It fell to the ground, quickly, a deadly slice across it's chest. I'd damaged most of it's internal organs and as such, it died in merely one blow. It had some good dangerous natural weapons, with the claws and teeth and stuff, but it had nothing on a legendary fighter like myself I thought.

Almost instantly I heard another rustle come from yet another bush. I drew my sword, and looked around, for what caused it, when suddenly, I felt a large weight jump on my back

"ooh ooh AHH AHH AHH!" I heard something shout into my ear.

Taken by surprise, I jumped into the air, and threw whatever was on me, onto the ground and landed, ready to lay a killing blow with my sword. However, what I saw was not another one of those green crocodile monsters, but rather...well...a monkey...A small monkey. But this was no normal monkey...It had a hat on...A red one, and a red shirt, with yellow stars on it. It's tail was also really curly. I looked back up at the carving in the side of the island, this monkey kind of looked like the carving...But it wasn't a carving of him.

"Umm...Hi there?" I said slowly to the monkey.

" OOH OOH OOH!" the monkey said, hopping up and down very excitely.

It, moved over to the opening of the cave under the carving and started waving it's hands.

"You want me to follow you or something?" I said to it.

"OOH OOH" It grunted back, dashing into the cave.

(Well...There's obviously nothing else to find around here...I may as well follow it.) I thought, as I stepped into the cave. Surprisingly there were torches hung up on the wall. They were lit and gave off a good bit of light. The small monkey was up ahead, staring at me. When it saw that I had followed it in, it waved it's hands again, and ran further in. I followed it, to find that it had stopped yet again, a little ways ahead to see if I had kept following it, and it repeated it's self. We did this process over and over again several times, before finally the monkey led me out of the cave and into a large opening in the forest. There was a large tree house in the center of it, and cave off to the side.

The small monkey walked up in front of the tree house, and waved it's arms around again. "OOH AAH AAH AAH OOH EEH!" The monkey said excitedly, up into the tree house.

A few seconds later, I saw several more monkey's pop their heads out of the door. They looked at me, and all of them jumped down onto the ground and started hooting excitedly. There were now five of them, including the small monkey from before. Just like the little one, every single one of them looked odd. One of them was orange, and had extremely long arms. It's face kinda drooped a little bit, making it look kind of old. It had on over-alls over a small white shirt. Another one next to it, was really tall, the other 4 were just barely taller then me, and the small monkey was actually shorter then me, but this one towered over me. It's arms looked really muscular, but it was cowering in the corner like it was scared of something. It had on a small hat, and a white shirt, with what looked like a small blue vest over it. The next one looked even weirder. For starters, it had hair. While it's fur was brown, at the top of it's head it turned blonde, and had been tied into pig-tails. Even more stranger, it had on shoes, and a blue shirt that covered up most of it's body, although another small white shirt could be seen underneath it. The last of them looked the most normal for a monkey. It was the second biggest out of the 5 of them. It had a tie on, with the letters "DK" on it. It's face looked really familar... I could have sworn I'd seen it before... (It's the same face that was carved into the side of the island!) I thought as it finally hit me.

"OOH OOH AAH AAH AHAH!" I heard the small monkey shout, as I again felt a weight on my back.

I quickly yanked him off of me, and through him to the ground. "Annoying little monkey..." I muttered under my breath.

All 5 of the monkeys, jumped as I spoke and again began hooting excitedly. The monkey with the tie pushed the monkey with the pig-tails forward, and the other 4 watched the two of us.

The monkey, looked at me and to my surprise, opened it's mouth and said "Umm...Hi there?" In a female voice.

I jumped in surprise. "You can talk?!?!?!" I said to her.

"I can... The others can't though." She replied.

"Why?!?! Monkey's aren't supposed to be able to speak English?" I said back.

"Well, you see...there's this tale that Cranky tells us every now and then, that one day a masked warrior would come and save us from a disaster. And he seemed to believe it so much, that he demanded that I study the language of the ancients, so that when he warrior came we could communicate with him" The monkey replied.

This was getting hard to believe. "Look , are there any human's around here? I really need to figure out what this "disaster" is that I'm supposed to prevent. And a human would help a lot more then you." I said to the monkey.

"Human? What's that? Some kind of food? I've never heard of anything like that around here...Hang on a sec, let me ask the others." She said.

She turned to the other 4 monkeys and said "EEH AAH AHH EEH OOH?"

The monkeys all grunted back, and she turned back towards me and said "Nope sorry, they don't know what a human is either."

(Great...Just great...I'm stranded on an island with a bunch of crazy monkeys...) I thought.

I sighed and said "Well then I guess you're the only help I've got...Hurry up and explain what the hell I have to do."

"Well shouldn't we introduce ourselves first? Hi I'm Tiny Kong!" The monkey said.

"Meta Knight..." I said bluntly.

"Hi Meta Knight!" Tiny said back to me.

She pointed to the other 4 monkeys said "These are my friends, Chunky Kong, Lanky Kong, Donkey Kong and..." She said pointing to each of the monkey's as she named them.

Before she could name the small monkey, I heard it say "OOH OOH AAH A-"

I quickly spun around and kicked the tiny monkey square in the face, before it could again, hop on my back. "WILL YOU STOP THAT!!!" I said to it.

"Oh, that's just Diddy, he likes you." Tiny said.

"eeh oh" Diddy said, as he walked over to the other Kongs.

"Yes yes, how nice to meet you all" I said, sarcastically. "Now what the hell am I supposed to do?"

'Well... The Kremlings invaded not too long ago. Diddy said you ran into one of them. The walking green thing." Tiny said.

"Ok then, I guess I'm off." I said, turning to walk away.

"No wait! We got rid of the Kremlings already, there's just a few of them still around here and there. Diddy was getting rid of them when he found you, and you fit the description of the masked warrior, so he brought you here." Tiny said to me.

I stopped and turned around. "Ok then, what ELSE is wrong with this place?..." I said frustrated at this damn island.

"Well, there is fire in cave of the not fire." Tiny said back to me.

"What?" I asked her.

"Maybe I worded that wrong. There is cave fire now, in old non-fire place." Tiny said.

"That doesn't make any more sense, then the first sentence." I said back to Tiny bluntly.

"Oh...sorry...I still haven't mastered this language yet... I guess I don't know how to say it." She said back.

I sighed again and said "Fine...Just come and show me!" I said, again turning to leave.

Tiny turned back to the other Kongs and said "EEH AAH AAH AHH EEH OOH EEH" before following me back into the cave I had come here in.

"Sorry, I was telling them what we were gonna do." She said. "I suppose I'll lead you"

She got in front of me, and led me out of the cave back onto the beach area. We started walking around the island. I felt the need to ask her something. Apparently they were no humans here, but the Kongs didn't even know what humans were.

"Hey Tiny...what year is it?" I finally asked Tiny Kong.

"Oh, you don't know?" She replied, afterwards she told me what year it was.

I stumbled in surprise. She had to be joking. The year she'd just told me, was millions of years behind, what it was when I stopped through the portal. I knew Bestivous said he would be sending me into the past...but THIS far?

"Are you ok?" Tiny asked me.

I stood back up straight, and said "Yeah, of course I am."

"If you say so" Tiny replied.

We continued walking until finally, Tiny stopped and pointed back up at the island. I looked where she pointed and saw a cave going into the island again. But there appeared to be no way up there. There were no footholds on the side of the island leading to it or anything.

"That's the place up there, but we'll need to find a way to get up there. It's too steep, even for me. We could go back and get Diddy. He could fly us up there on his rocket jet-pack." Tiny suggested.

"No thanks I got this covered." I said back to her, not wanting to go back to those apes.

I spread my wings out from behind my back and Tiny gasped at them. I picked her up, and took off, flying towards the cave entrance. I flared my wings when I got close to the entrance, and dived down landing right in front of the cave. I let go of Tiny, and she fell to the ground.

"That was awesome!!" Tiny said, getting back up.

"Yes, yes it is, now can we get on with it? What's wrong here? It looks like a normal cave to me." I said to Tiny.

"Come on, I'll show you." She said, leading me into the cave.

We walked a little ways into the cave. Like the one leading to the Kong's home, this cave too was brightly lit. But this time it wasn't by torches, but by a bunch of light blue crystals which were all over the walls. They all glistened, by some unknown source of light. (I bet Rikku would like this place...It's pretty...) I thought. I wondered what Rikku was doing back at the mansion. I wondered how much time had passed since I left back there. (She's probably goofing off with that Yuna girl...) I thought.

I turned my attention back to the cave. I needed to get out of here as quickly as I could.

"So?...I still don't see anything unusual" I said to Tiny.

"We have to go further in...This part of the Crystal Caves hasn't been affected yet." Tiny replied.

She told me to follow her, and the two of us continued further into the caves. The ground was getting harder and rougher as we went. Suddenly a loud roar, came from somewhere in the cave. The entire cave it's self started shaking.

"That's what's wrong with this place." Tiny said, after the noise subsided.

I nodded and we kept going. It seemed like the further in we went, the more rougher the ground got. Also it was beginning to get much hotter. After we were pretty deep into the cave, I noticed something. Some of the blue crystals were...melting. Some of them barely showed any signs, while others were almost completely melted to the ground. (Well...I suppose I found the problem Bestivous.) I thought, as Tiny and I walked into an opening of another part of the cave. In the center of the room, was a massive pool of lava. The floor was melted, as well as most of the crystals. The majority of the light in the room was coming off of the lava it's self. Not to mention the room was blazing hot, and the pool took up about 80 of the entire area here.

When we stepped in, we immidietly heard the same roar from before, only this time it was a lot closer. In fact, it was coming from a room directly across from this one. I squinted my eyes, and saw another opening in the wall leading in the same direction the roar was coming from. I flared my wings again, and prepared to take Tiny across, when I heard an odd buzzing sound. I turned my head, to see a bunch of large bees coming from cracks in one of the walls of the cave. At least they resembled bees. They were black with yellow stripes, but they had spikes going all along their back. Also they had pretty large stingers. They all looked pretty pissed, whatever had just roared had probably upset them. Seeing as how we were closer to their hive, it was likely they thought Tiny and I were the cause of the disturbance.

"AHH! Zingers!" Tiny said, pointing towards some of the bees.

"Don't worry, I got this covered too." I said flaring my wings. Seeing as how most of this room was submerged in lava, I couldn't fight on the ground much.

There was a good couple of "Zingers" already coming towards us, but there were even more still coming out of an apparent hive behind the cracks of the wall. I drew my sword, and prepared to strike. I'd have to strike from as far away as I possibly could if I wanted to avoid running into those spikes, or even worse a stinger. All of a sudden, a couple of Zingers dive-bombed towards me from the ceiling. I waited, and dashed to the side quickly, as one tried to bring it's stinger down on me. I slashed it in the face, and rolled backwards as yet another one attacked me. It too didn't last long however, as I quickly recovered and slashed it too. I flared my wings again, and took off into the air killing another Zinger.

I started flying directly over the lava, where most of the Zingers were hovering anyway. They charged to meet me, and I quickly disposed of several of them. They had no choice but come near me to attack, and my sword could reach them before they could reach me. Another Zinger tried to attack me from behind, but it was too slow. I turned and delivered a fatal slash. Another came from the side, but I flew up, and sent a wound to it's side sending it into the lava. A third charged me straight on. I quickly send a stab to it's head. But suddenly I felt something ram me in the back hard. I flew forward, and smacked a wall, feeling a sharp pain in my back. I turned, around to see what had hit me to find one Zinger was missing it's stinger. I had a bad feeling in my back that I knew what happened in it.

All the Zingers dive-bombed towards me again. They were attacking as a group. If I attacked one, I would just be hit by all the rest of them. I had to try regardless, and slashed at the nearest one. I flared side-ways and barely avoided another stinger, only to be hit yet again by another one, this time to the face. I again flew back, hitting the same wall as before. Another Zinger reared up to attack me, when suddenly a red feather came out of nowhere, and hit it in the face, stabbing into it. The Zingers tuned in the direction it came from, and almost all of them were shot down in seconds by the same feathers. I looked to see what was firing them to find Tiny Kong, standing near the entrance of this room with a cross-bow of some kind in her hand, where she'd gotten it from I had no clue. (Damn...she's a good shot) I thought, as she shot down several more Zingers. Their attention as now entirely on her, and it seemed as if they'd forgotten I was even here.

Now was my chance. There were still Zingers coming out the wall, and I had to find a way to stop them. Getting back up further into the air, away from the lava I looked around the room for a way to do. Soon I spotted a large stalactite, hanging just above the cracks in the wall. Better yet the heat from the lava had weakened it some, there was a good chance with enough force I could knock it down. I glanced back a Tiny, she was still going strong, so I headed right for the stalactite. When I got closer I saw that there was what a cracked spot near the top. I started whacking at it as hard as I could with my sword. (YES! It's starting to break) I thought, as I continued hitting it with all my strength. Eventually, I finally broke through. The stalactite fell down with a thud into the lava. Eventually it would melt, but for now the Zinger hive was blocked off. I looked back over at Tiny, she was still fighting of the last of the Zingers. I flew over to where she was, and the two of us finished off the rest of the group.

"Well...that got dirtier then I'd hoped" said to Tiny.

"Yeah...Those Zingers are nasty...Oh um...You still have those stingers in you..." She replied.

"Oh yeah..." I said to her, as I pried the two stingers out with my sword. Fortunately the wounds weren't too bad, I'd probably be ok without any treatment

"I suppose we should continue before more come" I said to Tiny.

She nodded and I picked her up and carried her over the lava pit. But I noticed something. The lava pit was...Bigger. It had grown during the battle somehow. Shrugging it off, I landed near the entrance to the next part of the cave, and let go of Tiny. The two of us looked at each other, and stepped forward into the next room.

There were several small pits of lava in this room. Unlike the massive pit in the previous one, this room merely had several small pits scattered all over the ground. But that was about the only thing of interest here, there were no monsters. (Odd...I could have sworn that roar from earlier came from in here) I thought. There were no more entrances or exits here, save from the one we came in from.

"Well, I guess we better search elsewhere. Whatever it was, it's not here." I said to Tiny.

The two of turned to leave, when we suddenly heard the same roar we'd heard twice before. It was definitely coming from this room, it sounded so close there was no doubt about it, but what was causing it? I pondered this, when suddenly one of the small pits of lava in the ground began bubbling, and the ground started shaking below us. I stared at the pit, and my jaw dropped, as a long slender dragon rose out of it. It's body was red, and it had a mane of fire that came off of its head and went down a little ways off of it's body. It had blue chameleon like eyes, and sharp looking claws. It's body was also really long. Also I noticed it had a small purple gem on it's head.

Right next to me, Tiny shrieked and shouted "Valvagia!"

The dragon, apparently named Valvagia, rose completely out of the pit, and began flying around the room. It roared yet again, and spewed out flames.

"He's the one causing the lava, if he keeps up he could destroy the whole island!" Tiny said, fearfully.

(Not with me around) I thought, as I flapped my wings a couple of times. Valvagia roared at us again, and flew up at the roof of the cave, ramming his tail into it. The impact caused several large boulders to begin falling down from the roof. Leaving Tiny to fend for herself, I took off into the air after Valvagia. I flew to the side, to dodge an oncoming boulder and landed on top of Valvagia, ready to give it a fatal stab. The second I landed on him however, I was forced to jump back off. His body was incredibly hot. (I suppose that should have been a given...He did just come out of a pit of lava.) I thought, as I pondered another way to damage Valvagia. I flew back after Valvagia, who'd flown away from me while I was giving my feet a few seconds to cool. I glanced back down at Tiny, who was still dodging the boulders falling from the roof of the cave. Focusing back on the dragon, I flew close to it's side, and sent a slash into the beast. It went in, and I hurt it, but Valvagia barely flinched from the pain, and whipped it's tail at me. I didn't have enough time to get away, and I flew back and hit the ground.

By now, the boulders had stopped raining down on me, but I still needed to come up with a new strategy.

"Meta Knight!, distract it, and bring towards me!" I heard Tiny shout at me, raising her cross bow.

(Stupid monkey, if my sword barely made a scratch what makes you think that damn cross bow can do any better?) I thought. I got back up off of the ground, and flew back into the air after Valvagia again. He looked at me and snapped forward with his mouth, in an attempt to bite me, but I flew to the side and sent another slash into it. It had the same effect as before, but as Valvagia went to whip me again, it roared again. But this time it wasn't an intimidating roar but one of pain. I looked back at Valvagia to find it tumbling out of the air and into the ground, a red feather stabbed into it's left eye-ball. I looked over at Tiny, who had a smile on her face, proud that she had just taken down a dragon. But Valvagia wasn't dead yet, he was still thrashing around. I bee-lined for the ground, and sent a forceful stab into Valvagia's left eye. He howled in pain, and in fear of being attacked again, quickly slithered his way back into one of the lava pits. The ground rumbled beneath me and Tiny, as Volvagia moved around beneath us. I kept a defensive stance, waiting to see what the dragon would do.

Eventually, Volvagia came out of another one of the lava pits, flying straight up quickly and again ramming the roof of the cave. The rain of boulders from before came back, but the ceiling was being weakened. If Volvagia kept on ramming it like this, it would come down on all three of us. I glanced back at Tiny, who again raised her bow, and flew up after Valvagia again. I swerved around some boulders, and stopped right in front of Valvagia taunting him. He snapped his mouth towards me again, and I floated downwards quickly, effectively dodging it, as a red feather flew towards the dragon. However Valvagia quickly turned his head, and the arrow bounced off of his scales. No good, he'd figured out the attack strategy, it wouldn't work a second time. I flew a few feet away from Valvagia, desperately trying to come up with a new plan of attack. If I could just get his other eye...He'd be blind... But I would need him to be on the ground. I couldn't touch him, and any sword attacks were useless anyway, plus he'd gotten wise on the feather attack. Things seemed grim... I needed a way, to hurt Valvagia quite a bit while not directly touching him. I could whack him on the head...but with what? I'd need something big. Then it hit me, literally unfortunly. While I was thinking a boulder from the roof, collapsed on top of me. It broke upon crashing to the floor, but not before giving me a severe bruise. But I didn't care, I'd just figured out how to take this bitch down once and for all.

"Tiny!, shoot some more feathers at him! I have an idea." I said to Tiny.

She nodded and began shooting rapidly at Valvagia, who evaded them all. But I merely needed his attention on something besides me. Immidietly I flew up into a corner of the room, and waited. I would likely only get one shot at this, if I missed Valvagia would have the attack plan, and would make sure not to put himself in it's path again. Valvagia had swooped down at Tiny, and was quickly over-whelming her. I had to do this quicker. I waited, and sure enough another boulder fell from the roof, in the middle of Valvagia and I. Quickly I charged forward, flying as fast as I possibly could and I rammed the boulder with all my strength. I watched the boulder fly...And smack Valvagia clear on the head, knocking it out. Tiny looked up at me, as I swooped down, sending a stab into the dragon's right eye. Both of it's eyes were now gouged out, and bleeding badly. Slowly but surely, Valvagia's breathing slowed down...And finally stopped. We were victorious.

Tiny shrieked in delight that the fight was over, but was quickly frightened again by a voice that said "Well done Meta Knight, you did quite well."

I recognized the voice instantly. It was that old man Bestivous's voice.

"Yeah, yeah now hurry up and get me out of here I'm sick of this damn place." I said back to him.

"Very well, but first do you see that purple crystal on Valvagia's forehead? Grab that first before I teleport you." Bestivous said.

I glanced back at Valvagia, and saw the gem he was referring too. Quickly I jabbed my sword at it, and pried it off of Valvagia's head.

"Alright, I got it. Send me back" I said to Bestivous.

"But first...send her back outside" I said, glancing back at Tiny.

"Wait wha-" Tiny replied, but in the blink of an eye she was gone. And a portal opened up in the center of the room.

'Hmph. This is the last time I ever baby-sit a family of annoying monkeys." I said to noone in particular as I stepped into the portal.

A white light again surrounded me in all directions. And like before I could feel myself getting light-headed...and losing consciousness.

7:30 P.M. 6/11

My eyes slowly opened back up again. I was laying on my face, on a hard floor. I groaned, and sat up as I heard some thunder clap in the distance. I looked around, and sure enough I was back in the attic of the mansion. Some lightening flashed outside of the window, and I could hear the patter of rain as it hit the roof. The stairs going back down to the actual mansion were closed up, and Bestivous was near the window looking outside. He seemed uneasy.

"Well? I did my part of the bargain, it's time for you to hold up yours." I said to Bestivous, who turned around to look at me.

"Hmm? Oh yes, the power you asked for. Don't worry I intend to give it to you. Here give me your sword and the crystal you got from that dragon." Bestivous replied.

"How long was I gone anyway?" I asked Bestivous, as I handed him what he asked for.

"Oh, about 3 hours. Give or take a few minutes." Bestivous said back to me.

He took, the crystal in one hand, and moved his other hand near the hilt of my sword. There was a flash of light, and I had to look away, but when I looked back there was an indention in the hilt of my sword. The crystal in his other hand rose up slightly into the air, above his hand and it too was covered in a blinding light. I turned away to protect my eyes, but when I turned back, the crystal didn't look any different. Bestivous nodded his head and handed the gem, and my sword back to me.

"There you go. Now put the crystal into the hilt of your sword." Bestivous said to me.

I did as he said, and sure enough the crystal fit perfectly into the indention. Yet...My sword didn't feel any different.

"What is this a rip-off? Nothing's changed!" I said in an angry tone of voice.

"Oh no. Much has changed actually, you just don't know how to activate it yet. Here, let me help you out, since you mortals can barely accomplish anything these days." Bestivous said.

He raised his hand, and my sword flew out of my hand, and stabbed into the wall across the room.

"Call to your blade Meta Knight. Concentrate with your mind, and call to it and it will come." Bestivous said to me.

(Concentrate and call to it with my mind?) I thought. I closed my eyes and concentrated. (Ok sword...Umm...Come to me now!) I thought. I opened my eyes and the sword was still across the room.

"No, you have to be more forceful then that Meta Knight." Bestivous said.

I grumbled and closed my eyes again. (DAMN IT SWORD GET BACK HERE NOW!!!!) I thought. Instantly I felt a weight, fall into my hands. I opened my eyes, and there my sword lay. It had appeared right in my hand.

"Good, good, now for the actual power. You see, with the power of that crystal your sword can now become a total of 3 other weapons, all with different powers. For instance, concentrate with your mind again and command your sword to become a trident." Bestivous said to me.

I decided to try without closing my eyes this time, and merely stayed at my sword while concentrating. (OKAY SWORD! TURN INTO A TRIDENT!) I commanded in my thoughts. A purple light came out of the crystal, in the hilt of my sword, and covered the entire sword it's self. When the light faded, I wasn't holding a sword, but a three-pronged yellow trident. I decided to test it, and attack forward at nothing in particular a few times. This trident was far lighter then my sword. As such, I could attack much faster and I had a better attack range. yet it didn't seem to have the killing power that my sword did.

"Also, that trident there has the elemental power of lightening entwined with it. As such, it can absorb lightening and thunder, and even shoot it out. Here try it out, just merely thrust the trident forward." Bestivous said.

I nodded and turned to a wall, thrusting the trident forward, but not hard as Bestivous had said. Instantly, a bolt of lightening shot out from the prongs of the trident, and crashed into a wall, leaving a big black mark. The lightening had quite a punch to it it seemed. I could already tell it would be useful.

"Good, now then for the next weapon. Concentrate and command your trident to be a ball and chain." Bestivous said.

I again nodded and did the exact same thing I had done to turn the sword into a trident, only this time I commanded it into a ball and chain. Again, the purple light came over the trident, and when it faded I was now holding a long chain. At the end of the chain on the ground was a black ball with several white spikes all over it. Eager to try out my latest weapon, I flung it around a few times. It was rather slow, since it took a certain amount of time for the ball to actually move, but it did have a bit of force in it. It seemed like a more defensive weapon then anything, but it still seemed useful.

"Now then, one left. Concentrate again and command the ball and chain to turn into an axe." Bestivous said to me.

I repeated the same weapon change process I had done twice before and again a purple light came over the ball and chain. When it faded, I was holding the handle of a deadly looking axe. Once more I tested the weapon out. It was fiercely powerful. I felt like I could chop a brick wall in half. But it's attack range was quite small, I would only be able to use it for close-encounter situations. I could swing it at about the same speed as my sword though.

"There you go, and don't forget, you can change any of the weapons to a different one anytime. There's no order you have to go through or anything...Well? Happy?" Bestivous said to me.

I changed the axe, back into my good old trusty sword and nodded my head saying "Indeed. It will take some practice, but I will be unstoppable with these! Let me know if you need anything else done old man. I'll be happy to oblige, with rewards like this." I said back to Bestivous smirking.

(That damn mage doesn't stand a chance against me now!) I thought, as I turned to leave.

"Wait!, Now I think it's time I told you the bad news..." Bestivous said uneasily.

"Bad news?" I said, turning back to Bestivous.

"Yes...It isn't about your new powers no rather...Well... Maybe you should just see for yourself. Look outside the window." Bestivous said.

I walked over to the window and stared outside. Some more lightening flashed, and I could see a good view of the yard of the mansion. Nothing seemed out of order.

"So what?...It's storming" I said to Bestivous.

Bestivous walked over next to me, and opened the window. He put his hands out into the rain and cupped them together. A few minutes later he pulled them back. I stared at his hands in disbelief. The rain...Wasn't rain. It was red... A dark red.

"Wha-...What?" I said to Bestivous confused.

The liquid had a very familiar scent...A scent I knew all too well, but it just couldn't be possible!

Bestivous looked me square in the eyes and said "It's...It's raining human blood..."

7:45 P.M. 6/11

---

PLOT TWIST!

For those who are curious. Meta Knight was sent into Donkey Kong 64, although after the events of the game it's self. Volvagia, was a boss from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (he was the "Goron Eater" that you fought at the end of the fire temple.) If I got some of the stuff wrong, then I apologise. I splunked the internet for hours looking for DK64 stuff, and the best I could find of the Crystal Caves level, only showed about 2 of it.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it! don't forget to R&R.


	13. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: **Yo no mencionó nada propio en esta historia. La trama y todos los caracteres personalizados se utilizan con la autorización de sus creadores. ( Guess what it means everybody?!?)

_note: Sorry it took so long. Spending time with the family, and enjoying the holidays (but mostly the latter) have kept me busy and without much time to write... Still no questions sent in...How...Expected... Anyways, on with the chapter! R&R Please?...My self esteem depends on it... This chapter was written by my buddy Brenden._

**---**

**Chapter 11**

Nobunaga Oda

2:00 P.M. 6/11

Sitting in my fortress, gazing out at the pathetic mortals living their boring lives, I remembered a legend I had heard. I sat up, and went to the library of my fortress, searching for the manuscript I had remembered. Before heading there however, I ordered one of my servants, Gogandantess, to begin gathering my Genma hordes. He obliged, and left, and I continued to the library.

I rummaged through the library for hours, until I found an old dusty tome. I held it up. It simply said "ZODIAC" on the cover. I blew the dust off, and opened the old tome.

"Rain of blood... Chaos and suffering... Pandemonium... Death... Misery..."

Few of the many words in a ritual located within the book. I fingered through the yellowed pages for quite some time. After reading over it, I learned how to summon the ancient Destroyer of Dimensions, Zodiac.

4:00 P.M. 6/11

(This will take awhile, though it'll be worth it to see the agonized faces of dying humans as this pitiful planet crumbles...), I thought to myself, a grin creeping across my face. I brought the book into my own room, and stored it away safely in a lectern beside my bed. I turned to the door as my bodyguard, Ranmaru Mori, ran into the room. Ranmaru may not look it, but he is a man. He has very feminine features, wields a large katana, and wears a purple gi.

"My liege, Lord Mitsuhide has returned with the items you requested." Said Ranmaru.

"Is that so? Show him in." I replied.

Ranmaru nodded and left the room. He came back several minutes later with another one of my servants, Mitsuhide Akechi. Mitsuhide had a chest filled with artifacts I have been seeking. Mitsuhide has long black hair, and wears dark purple armor. He wields a light katana, and is very fast and lethal in combat.

"The items you requested, my lord" he said, setting the box down.

I nodded, and opened the box, shifting through the items.

"Good... This ought to speed things up." I said to them.

"May I ask what it is you are planning my lord?" asked Ranmaru

"The destruction of this world." I replied coldly.

The two seemed a tad disturbed, and I grinned. They knew I was not joking, and decided to leave me be. They were far too loyal to object to anything I did. I locked the door after they left, and began organizing the items. I took the Zodiac tome out of the lectern, and opened it to the appropriate page. After setting everything up the way the book said, I sat down in the middle of the set-up, and began meditating.

6:15 P.M. 6/11

A few hours later, I stopped. The items now had an evil aura, and a beam of darkness shot out of them, out the window, and into the sky above. I stood up and watched as dark clouds formed in the sky, and thunder boomed. Lightning flashed, and it began raining... Only it wasn't ordinary rain. It was raining blood. Human blood.

The ritual had been a success. I noticed an incredibly small rift open in the sky. Only those with highly trained, highly sensitive eyes could see it. (That must be the portal. It requires more to open fully however.) I thought to myself. That was what the blood rain was for. As long as it continued to rain, the portal would slowly get bigger and bigger, until it finally opened completely.

This rift was the portal to the Destroyer's home. If I were to open it fully, Zodiac would invade this dimension, and annihilate the entire planet. But, something as big as the destruction of this planet deserved the rolling out of the red carpet. (I'll have to do something big, to welcome Zodiac) I thought. As I thought this, I heard a knock at my door. I opened it, and there stood another servant of mine, Keiji Maeda.

"I did whatcha wanted me to do." He said, too cheerfully for my tastes.

"Good... So I'm assuming the one known as Ramza is dead?"

I'd ordered the assination of the hero Ramza a day or two ago. He was a legendary hero. The death of someone as famous as him would sadden the entire planet. And with all of the participants of "Super Smash Bros." all gathered in one place. Ramza was almost asking for his death.

"Yeah yeah. I also killed a couple of other guys who got in the way. I think their names were Drusk and Armond or somethin"

"Good... The more anguish and suffering, the better." I said, looking at him intently.

"You know, you really creep me out! When you look at me like that, it feels like you're reading my mind or something... But I gotta warn ya, I'm gonna intentionally think of things that don't make sense just to throw you off, got it?" He said.

"...Oh? How amusing..." I said coldly. He shrugged, and left.

My plan was underway. I was sure that the pathetic humans were confused world-wide about all of the blood falling. It wasn't enough to satisfy me though. So I decided to personally wreak havoc. I gathered my armor and my sword, the Demon Regalia, and left my fortress, heading out into the land of the weaklings. Another retainer of mine, Hideyoshi Hashiba, took notice, and approached me. Hideyoshi is a scrawny man. Many call him the "Monkey King". He wears yellow armor, and wields a tri-nunchaku in combat.

"Uh... Lord Nobunaga? Where are you going?" he asked.

"Out" I replied. With that, I left.

I walked slowly into the forest, and in the direction of the Smash Bros. Mansion. With one of their number already dead, they would be off guard. I could easily kill several more.

Later on, I arrived at the mansion that the many heroes were staying at.

"Hm. Time to make a little noise." I said to myself

I launched a blast of darkness at the Mansion, destroying one of the walls. Several of them fled, but 5 of them came out to attack me. There were 4 men, and one woman. I could sense an air of loneliness and despair around the girl. I probed her mind. Her name was Riola, and she was Ramza's lover. An evil grin crept across my face and I probed the minds of the 4 men. Their names were Drusk, Edgar, Chad, and Kiaser.

(Drusk? I thought Keiji killed you... No matter. I'll finish the job) I thought to myself, lifting my arm. At once, the 6 of us were warped to a field in the middle of nowhere.

"There. Now we won't have anymore interruptions." I said with an evil grin.

Teleporting and mind reading. Just two of my many skills. Are they under-handed tactics? Indeed they are. Do I for one minute give a damn? Hell no.

The one known as Edgar was first to attack. He lunged at me with a jumping slash, intending to cleave me in half with his bastard sword. I easily sidestepped the blow and slashed him across his back. He fell forward, but caught himself, and turned to face me again.

All of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I saw several playing cards firing at me. I lifted my arm and created a sphere of darkness around myself, shielding me. I looked and saw the assailant, the one known as Chad, wielding strange shooting devices. At this moment, Edgar attempted another jumping slash. I quickly turned and slammed my fist into his gut. He coughed up saliva and a slight amount of blood, and collapsed. "Edgar! Grr... You bastard! I'll get you for that!" shouted the one known as Kiaser. He grabbed a card at his side, and made it much larger. He jumped on it, and the card flew at me.

At the same time, the one known as Drusk was shielding the woman, Riola. I glanced over, and could tell the girl was dear to these 4. Their battle positions, and strategy's were all reflecting that clearly. As Kiaser drew near, I rolled to the side and laughed as he crashed into a tree in his blind rage.

I turned to Chad, and blew him away with a sphere of energy. Drusk simply stared at me, seemingly unaffected by his comrades's struggles.

He shouted rather suddenly. "Drusk!... D!"

Edgar rose, and shouted rather weakly. "Edgar!... E!"

Chad flipped in midair and landed on his feet "Chad!... C!" he shouted.

Kiaser stood up in the wreckage of his card. "Kiaser!... K!"

All 4 of them spoke at once. "Together, we are the DECK!"

A bright light temporarily blinded me. When my vision was restored, there was no longer 4 men, but one different one. I probed his mind yet again, and discovered he was a fusion of the 4. Riola was watching in astonishment. Seeing as how she was important to all of them, I decided to target her first.

I quickly teleported behind her, and grabbed her. I placed my blade up to her throat. "One move and I'll slit the woman's throat." I said.

She had a terrified look, as did the Deck. I was in power, until...

"HEY!" shouted a familiar voice, as I was tackled from behind.

The assailant was none other than my retainer Keiji. I quickly pushed him off, and Riola quickly ran to Deck's side, scared.

"Keiji? How amusing." I said.

"Not just me! Some ninja guy too!" Keiji said.

As he said that, the shinobi known as Hanzo Hattori appeared.

That cleared some things up. Although in reality we were merely a little ways away from my own castle. Keiji wasn't smart enough to figure out I was here on his own. And I'd heard of Hanzo's deeds before. He worked for a group that apprently wanted me dead now.

Hanzo looks like an ordinary ninja. Dark body-suit, dark hood, facemask, and various ninja weaponry such as Shuriken and Kunai.

"My master has sent me to end you." Hanzo said, nearly emotionless.

I looked up at the sky. The blood was raining, and the rift was very slowly widening. (I need to speed this up) I thought to myself.

I rose into the air, levitating, and began rapidly firing of spheres of energy. Only my target wasn't my 4 opponents. My target was the ground. The spheres began colliding with the ground, forming large craters. The craters would act as bowls, gathering the blood rain for Zodiac.

At first, my opponents focused on avoiding my attacks, then Hanzo realized my plan, and began chanting something. Keiji got in front of him to shield him, and Deck continued shielding Riola.

I continued making bowls, and Deck jumped up at me, attempting to attack me.

I twirled around and grabbed his arm in mid-air. After grabbing him, I threw him over my shoulder directly at the ground. He plummeted and hit hard, creating another crater.

"Shadow Style, Grand Shadow Rasengan!!!" shouted Hanzo, who had now formed a massive ball of darkness. He threw it at me. Since I was distracted by Deck, I did not dodge, and took the full extent of the blow.

Unfortunately for Hanzo, I am very resistant to Darkness, so the blow didn't faze me too much. He had collapsed, exhausted. Riola was left defenseless, so I launched a high-power beam of lightning at her. Her eyes widened in fear and she gasped, but Keiji jumped in front of her and took the blow. He flew back and slammed into a nearby rock wall, screaming in agony. Riola gasped and ran after him to check on him. She never made it to him however. I again teleported, this time directly in front of her. I grabbed her by the throat, and she shrieked in fear. A punch or two in the stomahc, and she was already out like a light. I laughed, and tosses her to the side, by her downed allies.

With this, I vanished, and reappeared in my fortress again.

I gazed out at the land. (Still not enough) I thought to myself.

I thought on this for awhile, and decided on something. I would assault the Mansion where all those heroes live, wound and kill as many as I could, and bathe in their suffering. I'd need an army, which is exactly why I told Gogandantess to begin forming one.

I walked onto my balcony and looked out. A massive army of Genma were there, awaiting my command. I saw many of my retainers: Hideyoshi, Gogandantess, Mitsuhide, Ranmaru, my wife Noh, my sister Oichi, Oichi's husband Nagamasa Azai, Ekei Ankouji, Yukimura Sanada, Mitsunari Ishida, and several more. Noh is a beautiful woman. She wears a purple kimono, and high-heeled shoes. She has claws concealed under her large sleeves, and also wears a small circlet. Oichi is a young girl, wearing a pink and white dress. She wields a toy-like weapon. It's an iron ball, attached to a string. Nagamasa wears ornate blue, yellow, and green armor. He wears a large helmet, and wields a lance in combat. Ekei Ankouji is a perverted old monk, who wields a spear. He loves his alcohol and his women, and has a large belly. Yukimura Sanada is an honorable young man. He wears fiery red armor, a red headband, and wields a cross spear with deadly precision in combat. All of them were prepared for war, and I teleported down to them.

"We march! Our destination is Smash Bros. Mansion! Level the place. Kill everyone. Afterwards head to the city and burn everything to the ground! Make sure to leave no survivors!" I shouted.

The army took note, and we all began marching through the forest towards the Mansion.

"Archers and musketeers, remain behind the rest of the forces. Foot soldiers, fortify the defenses. Cavalry, patrol the area. Now...Musketeers, alternate your rounds. Get into 3 rows. When the man in front of you fires and begins reloading, you fire, then when you are reloading, the man behind you shall fire. Alternating the rounds like so will provide an endless stream of bullets. Officers, remain with your units. Shinobi, begin the attack! Musketeers, begin firing! CHARGE!!!"

8:00 P.M. 6/11

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Lo and behold! A villain emerges! Almost all the characters mentioned iin this chapter are from the Samurai Warriors games, but the Deck Bros. and Riola are custom made.

Well! I'll get the next chapter up as soon as I can!Until then Review! Now! Or else I'll stab you through teh interwebz!


	14. Chapter 12

Well here we are again. Sorry for the increasingly long waits for chapters. But my math class is making me want to stab myself. And some things, like my upgrading to Windows Vista have delayed my writings. Regardless I have no intentions of stopping this fic at the moment.

Also I wrote this chapter myself for anyone who's curious. I'm sorry if this one get's a little confusing 

_Disclaimer: I don't own anything mentioned in this topic as I am much too poor/uncreative to do so. All custom made characters and the plot-line are used with the permissions of their creators._

**---**

**Chapter 12 **

Vaati

My eyes opened slowly... I was lying on the ground on my stomach. I ached. Mostly near my knee, where my wound still remained. Slowly, I picked myself up from the dirt, and looked at my surroundings. I was on a plain...A large open one. It was day-time. Cloudy, but the sun was shining bright. I looked around, and saw nothing except for more grassland. Yet they looked...oddly familiar. (Whatever...I just need to hurry up and get this over with so I can my immortality) I thought, as I finally began walking.

It wasn't long until I came to a few small walls, protecting a few buildings. That didn't concern me...What did however was what was a little ways beyond them. A large, fortress-like wall, with an open drawbridge... And a large castle a ways behind it up on a hill. Almost immediately I collapsed on my knees, in shock. I stared at the wall for minutes, not believing my eyes.

"No...No...It can't be..." I said to myself.

I simply stared...Hoping the wall, was some sort of sick mirage...But it never vanished. I was back in Hyrule...Hyrule Field to be exact...Right in front of Hyrule Castle. (But...That bastard old man said he was gonna send in the past...Maybe...Maybe Link and Zelda haven't even been born yet...) I thought, as I finally collected myself. I decided. I had to investigate... Besides, I had to find out what was wrong here anyway... Hyrule Market was a good place to start. So I threw my cloak over myself and walked over to the drawbridge.

There were guards on the other side. I started walking slightly faster, as they stared at me, as I walked across the drawbridge. I suppose I did look suspicious... But they never stopped me. I stepped forward into the Market Square. There were people all over the place, some walking around various shops, others just standing around talking to other people. Cautiously, I walked around. Looking around for something, anything that could tell me what the date was. I couldn't walk up to someone and ask as it would look too suspicious. My eyes darted from shop, to shop. One shop in particular had a huge banner over it that said "Opening Sale, Today Only!" Near the bottom-right was the date I'd been looking for. For the second time today, my heart almost stopped. Immediately, I dashed into an alleyway, and ran to the end, lying against a wall of a building. My eyes, were bulging out from shock. I could still see the date clear in my mind. 6/9...Of this year. I'd been sent a mere 2 days into the past.

3:30 P.M. 6/9

(What kind of prank does that bastard old man think he's playing?!?!?!) I yelled inside my head. This couldn't be right. If anything went wrong here, that damn hero would take care of it. So then why was I here? It just made no sense. Link has always taken care of every single threat that dared to stand before him. Out of nowhere my thoughts drifted to another subject, as I remembered on very important fact. This was the day where the seal had weakened...This was the day where I had made my escape yet again from the hell that was the Four Sword. (Could that be it?!?!... Could I be the threat, that's supposed to be exterminated?!?!) I thought.

"Umm...Are you ok Sir?" I heard a voice say from down the alleyway.

I glanced back down, to see who spoke. Apparently some civilian had seen me run here and got curious.

"Err...Yes...I am fine..." I said back to the person, as I walked back towards the Market Square.

"Umm...Ok... If you insist." The person said walking away.

"Well this is just great... In a few hours, the seal of the Four Sword will crumble..." I muttered under my breath to myself.

"Wait, what?!?!" The same voice from before said.

The person from before stepped back out and stared at me.

"The Four Sword is weakening?!?! I'm not sure how you know that Sir, but Link must be informed at once!" The person said.

(Oh fuck... I thought HE WAS GONE!!!) I yelled to myself in my mind.

"You look tired Sir...Please find somewhere to rest, while I attend to this matter." The person said running off.

(DAMN IT!) I thought to myself. This was bad. I had just unknowingly revealed, that I would be breaking out of the Four Sword soon. If Link found it, he would have time to get a unit together, and surround the Four Sword. The second I escaped I would be re-sealed...And then what would happen to the current me? I suppose I'd end up back in the Four Sword as well. Trapped in my own personnel Hell for the rest of eternity, to do nothing but go insane. There was only one option. I had to kill the person who'd just run off before he could get word to Link.

I nodded to myself and dashed out of the alleyway, back into the Market Square. I looked all around for the person whom I'd just conversed with. It was no good; I'd already lost him in the crowd. Regardless, it was very likely he was heading to Hyrule castle, so without wasting any time, I dashed in the direction of the castle. I ran through the gateway, to the path to the castle, and stopped as I heard a clanking sound. I bent down and cautiously turned my head around the corner, to see some guards escorting the man I'd been chasing. It was no good... If I attacked him now, I'd be captured in an instant. The good news was that he apparently hadn't recognized me. Probably due to my cloak. If he knew what the Four Sword was, it was likely he knew who I was. So for the moment I was safe... But I doubted that would last long. For the moment, all I could do was walk back to Market Square, and wait for something to happen.

So I did just that, I turned around and walked back, to the same alleyway I'd been standing at before and sat down against a wall, staring out into the Square. I merely laid there...Waiting for something, anything to happen.

5:30 P.M. 6/9

A couple of hours later, the town finally began to take action. Link, rode out from the gateway leading to the castle on Epona, with several castle guards behind him. The guards almost immediately began putting flyers up along the walls, and Link stayed on the opposite side of the square from me. People would read the flyers, and then some would go up to Link and speak with him. After that they would be pointed towards where the guards were standing, and they stood with them.

Curious at these odd actions, I stood back up and walked out into the Square to one of the flyers. The flier was advertising, for people to volunteer for the re-sealing of the Wind Demon. A sum of money was being offered to anyone who decided to help out, but warned that there was no guarantee of their safety.

(Humph...So they're gathering peasants to stand against ME?) I thought, as I looked at the current number of my soon-to-be hunters. Again, I was in shock...I recognized them. I recognized every one of them. This was the same group of people who were chasing me, when I fled to the Smash Bros. Mansion. I looked all their faces over. Sure enough, yep, they were the same people. (Something isn't right here...) I thought. (If, I came back in time and accidentally gave my escape away, then the forces should have been waiting for me as I escaped. But they weren't, I was able to get a decent distance before I encountered them. ...It doesn't make any sense.) I was going to have to investigate further. And I didn't have any other options left regardless, besides to wait around for my eternal punishment to bite me in the ass. There was only one thing left to do. I reluctantly walked, cloak over my entire body, right up to Link.

I tried to speak, but my throat went extremely dry.

"Yes? ...Can I...Help you with something?" Link said staring at me.

"I-...I'd like to...to join... the peasant militia..." I finally managed to stutter out.

Link looked me over several times suspiciously and said "Oh...Ok...Well I suppose your good...Just walk over there where the rest of the civilians are standing."

I stood there for a few seconds, and slowly nodded my head. I walked over where Link had pointed me too, and turned around again. Link was staring at me...Hard. But eventually he shrugged, and turned back. I sighed, one of the biggest sighs of my life. I had done it. I had infiltrated the very army that would soon be seeking to destroy me. This had good and bad consequences to it...On the positive side, now I could keep a close watch on Link and make sure nothing happened that would affect me in the future. On the negative side...Well...I was trapped, right next to my sworn enemy. If he found out the truth of who I really was, things would get dirty. But for the moment, it appeared that I was safe. More and more people, mostly men, came and joined alongside the guards, and after a little while the group set out onto Hyrule Field.

We walked towards the Shrine of the Four Sword, slowly. It was a good ways away from town, so it would take a while to get there. I was nervous the whole way. I didn't say a word to anyone, and I tried to blend in with the other townspeople. But whenever I got too far, a guard would always call to me, and ask me to stand in a certain spot. Usually near one of them. Link was on Epona, but most of the rest of us were on foot.

7:30 P.M. 6/9

A couple of hours later, we were almost halfway to the shrine, when everyone was ordered to stop walking.

"Alright everyone, we'll be getting close to the Shrine shortly. For now, we'll take a small break for food and rest. Prepare yourselves." Link said to the entire group.

The townspeople who were with us cheered, and a small camp was set up. It wasn't dark yet, but it would be soon, and some people constructed a bonfire to keep everyone warm. The guards passed out food, from supplies they had brought, and everyone sat around the fire and talked...Well everyone but me. I just sat there, still not saying anything. Whenever someone tried, to say something to me, I would either nod my head or just remain quiet. Link was sitting directly across me, talking and laughing occasionally. I, on the other hand, was screaming inside my head. Spending this much time, right next to my stalker, was going to my head. Scenes would play in my head every so often. Scenes of Link stabbing me, sealing me back for eternity, and laughing alongside Ganondorf and Zelda at my failure. Scenes of Link in an executioner's robe, bringing the Four Sword down upon my head. And yet there were also scenes of slaughter. Me, rising up from the ground and killing every single person here. Throwing their blood upon myself and laughing in victory and satisfaction.

"Err...Are you alright?" I heard a guard ask me.

Keeping to myself again, I merely nodded my head.

"You've been awfully quiet ever since we left town Sir..." The guard said again.

"Is that a problem?" I finally said back to him quietly.

"I suppose not..." The guard said turning back.

The group continued conversing amongst its self for a little while longer until finally Link announced that we would be continuing the trip in a little while. Before, the group left, and the bonfire put out however a man asked Link a question.

"Why don't you tell us about your adventure to stop the Wind Demon, Link?" The man said.

"Umm...Why not I suppose" Link replied chuckling.

Link motioned for everyone to take their seats by the fire again, and they complied. Then Link began to recite an all too familiar tale...

"Well you see, it all started a few years back at the annual Picori Festival. Zelda and I were walking around together, enjoying the games and shops and such, when Zelda was called to the winners' ceremony of the annual fighting tournament. As most of you know, whoever wins the tournament gets to touch the Picori Blade. But the winner that year wasn't interested in that. The man's name was Vaati, and he was searching for a certain power in Hyrule. He quickly disposed of any guards that tried to stop him, and managed to petrify Zelda. So, later after many days of adventuring I acquired a weapon known as the Four Sword, capable of defeating Vaati. And I soon did just that, although Zelda at one point came very close to death."

Link finished his story, and all the townspeople cheered for him.

"So then why do we have to go after him again if you defeated him?" A townsperson asked.

"Well, he didn't actually die really...He was sealed up inside of the Four Sword. We thought the seal would last forever, but it quickly faded and Vaati escaped, and I had to go on another quest to re-seal him. Apparently, the seal is again weakening, so we must be ready to strengthen it! After all, if we let the Wind Demon escape, there's no telling what he might do." Link replied.

"And how do you know for sure he would do more bad things, once he's escaped?" I said speaking up.

This was too much. I couldn't sit here and be insulted like this.

"Because he's done unforgivable things to Hyrule. Why in the world wouldn't he continue his torturing streak, if he were released?" Link said back to me,

looking me over questionably again.

"Perhaps not...You shouldn't be so quick to judge, Hero..." I said to Link spitefully.

"Why do you defend the Demon so much? He shouldn't be trusted and that's that." Link said back glaring at me.

"Oh? Was what I did really THAT bad Hero..." I said spitefully again, as I threw my cloak off.

I'd had enough of this heresy. I would end Link here, once and for all, and then even when I got back to my real time he would be dead. There would be no one left to stand in my way, and I could finally take over this pitiful excuse for a country.

"Vaati! ...I should have known...I knew there was something bad about you... I can't believe I didn't see it before!" Link said.

All the townspeople and guards shrieked and dashed away from me behind Link.

"Well, with stupidity as big as yours it doesn't surprise me." I sneered back at Link.

The castle guards that had come with us brought spears forward and aimed them at me, while Link himself drew the Master Sword.

"If I'm stupid, then what are you? After all I've outsmarted you in combat how many times? 2? 3?" Link said back.

"Our battle history doesn't matter. You die here Hero." I said back to him, drawing my katana.

Link turned, to one of the guards and said "Take Epona to the Shrine, and get the Four Sword. Bring it back here to me as quickly as you can!"

The guard nodded and complied. I let him go. It wouldn't matter, I would have finished this fool by the time he got back, and the Four Sword in the hands of an amateur would be nothing to worry about. And if memory served correctly, the past me should have made his escape by now. There was nothing holding me back from finishing fairy boy once and for all.

The castle guards charged me first, although they were quickly pushed back by a wave of wind I conjured up. All the guards lying on their backs, Link charged forth, and the two of us clashed blades. We swung at each other, a couple of times before I managed to get an advantage and shoved him back. He recovered quickly however, and responded by pulling his bow and firing arrows at me. I dodged as quickly as I could, and sent a sharp blast of wind at him. He rolled to the side and continued the barrage of arrows. I charged him, side-stepping arrows constantly, until finally I slammed my blade on top of the bow. Link shoved forward and threw me of my balance. He then followed up with a kick to my stomach, knocking me onto my back.

Getting back up, the guards whom I'd previously knocked down charged for a second time. I lunged to the side as a spear flew by me, and sent a slice into the guard holding it with my katana. He stumbled forward, and I grabbed his body and tossed it onto another guard quickly. Clashing weapons with several more guards, I was forced backwards as I blocked incoming slashes, and stabs. But I dispatched them quickly, sending slashes through their necks and stomachs and other vital areas. They were too unskilled to handle me. After killing four of them or so, the rest backed off taking defensive positions in front of the townspeople, who were cowering in fear this entire time. I couldn't wait to kill them all...But that would have to wait as Link once again stepped forward.

We clashed yet again, the clanging of our swords echoing loudly, as we swiped at each other. We were interrupted however by the sound of...galloping? I glanced in the direction of the noise, to see a guard riding on Epona...The Four Sword in his hand. (Are we THAT close to the shrine?!?!?!) I yelled in my head. Shoving Link aside, I sent a wave of wind and knocked Epona on her side, sending the guard and the Four Sword toppling. In a flash, Link pulled out his grappling hook, and fired it. It snagged the Four Sword in mid-air and brought it back to Link. Link brandished it a few times before turning back to me.

"Ready to finish this, Demon?" Link said.

I merely stared at the weapon in his hand. This was it...I had been too careless. Link charged towards me, and I blocked, only to be shoved to the ground. I stared up in fear as Link raised the Four Sword over his head, and began to bring it down. I closed my eyes and screamed, waiting on my personal hell to embrace me once more. I waited...But nothing ever happened. I opened my eyes, to see old man Bestivous standing over me.

8:30 P.M. 6/11

"Come on get up. Up and at em! Sheez, is that weapon really so scary?..."

Bestivous said, kicking me in the side.

I looked around...I was back in the Mansion attic...It was night-time and it was raining outside. Regardless I stood back up.

"You have no idea..." I said, getting calmer.

"Ah well...If you insist...Anyways congratulations, you completed your quest!" Bestivous said to me.

"I did?...But I didn't do anything...I never even bothered to find out what it was I needed to know" I said back to Bestivous confused.

"Yes, yes I know... You see, your mission was to protect your past self. Had you not intervened you would have been immediately recaptured upon your escape and you never would have came here, and none of this would have ever happened." Bestivous explained.

"So by battling Link's group I... accomplished the goal?..." I asked, still confused.

"Yep, you distracted them long enough, for the past you, to escape and eventually make it to the Mansion, to hide-out... And well I suppose you know the rest.." Bestivous replied.

It was a tad bit confusing, but I didn't care. All that mattered was that I was back in my real time, and that technically my end of the deal had been held up.

"Well then? I expect my reward now..." I said, to Bestivous impatiently.

"I know I know...impatient little mortals... Here, swallow this." Bestivous said, pulling out two stones.

He handed the stones to me.

"Swallow these?...But their rocks..." I said glaring at Bestivous.

"Really? Well, congratulations, you can observe at a 1st grade level...Yes their rocks. But they're special rocks. If you eat one it will grant you immortality." Bestivous snapped at me.

I looked the stones over again...They looked like normal rocks, save for a few strange symbols I'd never seen before on the sides. Still very unsure about the reliability of a rock granting me immortality, I opened my mouth and dropped one of them in. I strained to swallow it, and eventually succeeded. I fell to my knees and coughed, as the stone slid down my throat. A few seconds later I sensed an overwhelming power, just kind of surge through my body.

"Congratulations Vaati, from now on you can never die nor will you ever age past your current state. There is a catch though...Even though you can't die, you can still feel pain." Bestivous said.

"Regardless, It feels great" I said back to Bestivous.

I put the last stone in my pocket, so I could give it to Raveness later, but for now I had other plans. I drew my katana and stepped over to the closed attic stairs, intent on shoving them open.

"And where do you think your going?" Bestivous said to me.

"I plan on killing every single person in this damn mansion. That's where I'm going" I said turning back to him.

"I'm afraid not...After all I told your lady friend I'd teleport you back when you returned...And I never go back on my word... So good-bye Vaati! I'll be seeing you again sooner then you think." Bestivous said with a grin.

"Oh you littl-" I started to say, but in an instant I was in the woods instead of the Mansion.

"Damn it!" I said, punching a near-by tree.

Then I noticed something...Odd about the rain. It was warm...Really warm. The puddles on the ground were red...and thick. This was no rain...It was blood.

"Vaati!" I heard a voice say from behind me.

I turned around to see Raveness, standing under a tree. There was blood all over her. I dashed quickly under the tree, which protected from the blood somewhat.

"Raveness!...What's with the blood rain?" I asked her.

"I don't know... It started about an hour ago..." Raveness replied.

"Come on...We should seek shelter...I sense something foul about it..." I said back to her.

She nodded, and the two of us dashed off, in a random direction. Bestivous had done as he said he would, and teleported us, to the spot where we had been when he first spoke with us, so we somewhat knew the layout of the woods in this area. We looked all over the place, until I finally spotted a cave that appeared safe enough for us to hide in for the night. I pointed it out to Raveness and we took shelter inside, after looking around to make sure it really was safe. We dried the blood off of ourselves with our cloaks, and sat down near the entrance of the cave.

"Oh, I forgot. Here swallow this." I said to Raveness, pulling out the second stone I had received from Bestivous and handing it to Raveness.

"A rock?..." Raveness asked questionably.

"It will give you immortality...I know it sounds strange, but it works. I can feel it." I replied to her.

Looking unsure, she too swallowed the rock and began coughing violently before finally standing back up.

"It...Worked...I can feel it..." She said to me.

"See?...I told you... Anyways, I suppose we may as well lay down for the night...We can't go back out into that hell rain." I said to Raveness.

Raveness nodded.

"But it is rather cold...Maybe we should lay down...Together?" She said.

I couldn't help but go red a little, and merely nodded my head. The two of laid down on the floor of the cave, next to each other and closed our eyes. But something was bothering me... As much as I enjoyed her company, Raveness couldn't stay with me. If she did...She would be hunted down, as I was, for the rest of her life. I couldn't put her through that... I tapped her on the shoulder and she opened her eyes.

"Raveness...After this storm stops...I think we should part ways..." I said to her sadly.

"Why?" Raveness replied also sadly, in what sounded like a shocked tone of voice.

'Well you see...I can't hide this from you anymore... I'm a demon... I tried to take over my home country. I killed my own parents. I constantly have psychotic thoughts, and people like the blue knight from before constantly plague me. Staying with me, would mean being hunt down the rest of your life and despised by every person that learns your identity...And you don't deserve that..." I said woefully.

She stayed quiet for a long time before muttering "Va-...Vaati..."

She looked like she had something on her mind...But she merely turned around, and didn't say another word. Yet she never moved away. We continued lying next to each other, as the thundered crackled and the storm continued.

I closed my eyes again, and tried to drift off to sleep...But more thoughts plagued my head. This time it was not Raveness's well-being, but the old coot Bestivous. Some things didn't make any sense... When Raveness and I first met Bestivous he explained that, the jobs he sent people on were quests into the past to save the current present from changing. Yet my quest was to insure that I successfully made it to the Mansion. Had I not completed it, I'd be back in the Four Sword right now...And that wouldn't negatively affect the future at all. Hell in most people's eyes it would make it better...So then why was it so important that I made to the Mansion? And for that matter what did the old man mean when he said I would be seeing him again sooner then I thought.

One thing was obvious. The old guy knew something he hadn't told me. But for now all I could do was ponder. So I shrugged my thoughts off, and finally drifted off to sleep...

10:30 P.M. 6/11

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Well the plot has thickened. Meta Knight has his power. Vaati is incapable of dying. And a mysterious old man knows more then he lets on. What will happen? Find out soon... Now leave a review please My self-esteem depends on it.


	15. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: Nothing mentioned in this belongs to me. Get it through your skull. The plot and all custom-made characters are used with the permission of their creators.**

Well this update didn't take as long as the last one. I managed to find a LITTLE bit more free time to work, and it helped a lot. Anyways, insert the usual please review here. I'm run out of ways to ask……Or maybe beg would be a better word.

_Note: This chapter starts IMMIDIETLY where Chapter 10 ended. Also I wrote this chapter for those who are curious._

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Chapter 13

Meta Knight

7:45 P.M. 6/11

"Hu-human blood?!?!?!... That's impossible there's no way it could happen."

I stammered at Bestivous, as he dropped the puddle of blood in his hand out the window.

"Eh, you can believe or not, the fact of the matter is it's happening." He replied.

"But how?!?! It makes no sense at all. How did it start raining blood?" I demanded.

"The Demon King has begun his embrace of the world..." Bestivous said softly.

"THE HELL IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!?!" I yelled.

"You'll find out in due time, little warrior. For now, you've acquired what you wanted. Return to your friends downstairs..." Bestivous said.

He opened a portal and disappeared in it, before I could respond to him.

I cursed under my breath, as the staircase to go back downstairs opened up. I knew I could yell all I wanted too, it wouldn't ever bring him back. I looked out the window at the rain for a few minutes. I had a bad feeling about it... Finally I turned around and stepped down the staircase onto the floor below it. I stairs rose again as I stepped off, and shut once more. There still wasn't anyone on this floor. So I stepped down the staircases, and began heading to the ground floor. There were people roaming the halls once more as I got closer to the bottom. I finally made it down the final staircase and turned into the main living room.

8:00 P.M. 6/11

There was a large number of Smashers here in the living room. More importantly however, there was a gaping hole in one of the walls. Ultima was near where the hole was, running his hand over broken spots. His hand was glowing a bright white color, and whenever it passed over a broken spot, the light would engulf it, and that part of the wall would be fixed. The rest of the Smashers were watching him work, apprently in awe. Mell was also standing watching Ultima work. Not really knowing anything else to do, I walked over to her.

"What happened here?" I said to her.

She turned to look at me and said "Oh hello there Meta Knight...You weren't here earlier?"

"No...I was... Umm...Occupied" I replied.

"Oh... Somebody shot something at the mansion, shortly after the weird rain started coming down, and it blew up the wall." Mell explained.

"Who did it?" I asked her.

"No one knows really. It startled all the Smashers, save for 4 human males and 1 human female, who all went outside to chase whoever did it...But no one's seem them since they left, and by the time any of us knew what was going on, they and the attacker were gone." Mell explained.

"So then what's Ultima doing?" I asked.

"He's fixing the wall of course... We can't have that nasty storm getting into the mansion...And he already fixed everything else." She said.

I looked around the living room. She was right, all the damage from the fight in here yesterday was gone. The room looked like it had just been furnished today. Still, the attack on the Mansion was defiantly odd. (I wonder if it has anything to do with the blood rain.) I thought. I decided to ask Mell a question I'd been pondering since I got back from that damn monkey island.

"And how did it start raining blood exactly?" I asked Mell.

"We don't know... No one does. Someone checked the news earlier on TV and it's doing this world-wide, not just here. World leaders, and people all over the world are freaking out right now." She replied.

(It seems no one really knows what's going on...) I thought, as I nodded to Mell. Apparently I wouldn't be getting any answers out of her.

"I see...Well I'm going back to my room if you need me Mell." I said to her as I turned around.

Slowly, I walked back up the staircase up to the third floor and began walking towards my room. I stopped, when I got to the doorway and reached for the knob but stopped when I heard...Voices? Fearing the worst, I cautiously opened the door, and stepped inside, to find the two girls from before, the ones on that airship that were Rikku's friends. (Damn it what are their names again...Yuna and...?) I thought, unable to come up with the girl in black's name. Regardless, the girl in black was leaning against the wall, while Yuna was standing near one of the corners. The two of them looked at me as I opened the door.

"Hey Rikku, someone's here to see you..." Yuna said.

Rikku popped up, from a corner where I suppose she was sitting down at. She looked at me, and ran around the bed and picked me up, embracing me in a hug.

"Meta! Your ok!" She said, squeezing me tightly.

"Of course I am...Why wouldn't I be?!?!" I said, trying to squeeze out of her grip.

" You were gone for so long I was starting to get worried" Rikku replied cheerfully, still squeezing the life out of me.

" I was gone for a couple of hours, big deal... And what did I tell you about the hugging?!?!" I said raising my voice.

Just then a bolt of lightening flashed outside of the window. The second it did, Rikku promptly shrieked and tossed me up into the air, sprawling into the nearest corner crouched down. After a rather rough landing on the back of my head, I stood back up and faced her.

"WHAT WAS THAT ALL ABOUT?!?!" I said, angry.

"Don't hold it against her Meta Knight...Rikku's terribly afraid of thunder and lightening." Yuna said from across the room.

"When I wa-was little...Br-brother accidentally hi-hit me with a thunder spell..." Rikku sputtered out, cowering in the corner.

Rikku shrieked again as a second bolt of lightening flashed across the sky.

(She looks rather...Pathetic right now...) I thought, shaking my head at Rikku.

"And I suppose the blood rain isn't helping her either..." I muttered out loud.

"That's not helping anyone at the moment..." Yuna muttered.

I was going to converse further on that subject, when I heard another voice from behind me.

"Hey you guys, Mell and Ultima want everyone downstairs. Apparently something's up."

I turned around to see Shadow standing in the doorway.

"What's going on?" I asked him.

"I don't know. Two weird guys suddenly walked in carrying some guy and Ramza's old girlfriend Riola... She was one of the ones that chased the attacker earlier." Shadow explained.

"What happened to them?" I asked Shadow.

" I don't know, but their not conscious. Their being healed as we speak, but still Ultima and Mell want everybody in the Mansion to come to the living room." Shadow said.

"Alright, we'll be down in a second." I said to him.

He nodded and continued down the hall, probably to spread the announcement to other people on the floor. I turned back to the girls.

"I hope nothing too serious is happening..." Yuna said, concerned.

"I'm sure it's nothing, it was probably a rowdy fan or some wanna-be thief...Anyways I suppose we should go. Is she going to be ok?" I said motioning to Rikku.

"I suppose I-I can tr-try to come..." Rikku said, standing up

Another bolt of lightening flashed however and she immediately shrieked and went right back down.

"I don't know...Maybe we should go without her..." Yuna said, looking worried.

"No! No! I'm coming too..." Rikku said firmly, standing up again.

"Whatever...But if you freak out in front of everybody, I'm dragging you back up here..." I muttered to Rikku.

She nodded, and Rikku's friend in black stood up straight. The 4 of us, walked out of my room and descended downstairs back into the living room.

8:20 P.M. 6/11

There were crowds of people, in here and in the center of it Mell and Ultima were standing over a man and a woman, who had many injuries all over their bodies. Ultima was crouched down over the woman, running his hand, which was glowing again over her body. More importantly however, there were two odd looking males standing near them. They too had injuries all over them. One of them, was a big guy with long blonde hair. He had red and blue armor on, and was holding a giant spear. The other guy, was in a bunch of ninja gear. I couldn't see very much of his body because it was all covered up, save for his eyes.

"Is this everybody Ultima?" The big spear man asked.

Ultima looked up, from the girl at the man and said "Yeah I think so."

Afterwards Ultima went back to running his hand over the girl, whom Shadow had called Riola. I watched him, and it appeared like he was healing her. Much like what had happened with the broken wall (which now looked brand new) after his hand passed over an injured spot, it looked perfectly fine.

"Good...Alright everybody listin up! We got a bit of a situation on our hands... And you guys were the only ones we could come too." The large man said.

"Well you could start with telling us who you are..." Someone I didn't see said from the crowd.

" They have a point Keiji..." The ninja man said.

"Oh I see...Well I'm Keiji Maeda!" The large man said.

"Hanzo Hattori..." The ninja said.

"Pleasure to meet the both of you, but put the introductions on hold. Their waking up." Ultima said, pointing to the man and Riola.

As Ultima had pointed out, their eyes were opening slowly.

"Oww... What happened?..." The man said.

"You, and the girl over there took a beating from the Demon King..." Hanzo said bluntly.

"Seriously?!?! We lost?... Aww man...What a bummer...And we even busted out our secret fusion trick.." The man said.

"Not much use for it now guys..." Riola said, sitting up slowly.

"I suppose..." The man again said.

A bright white light surrounded the strange man, and when it had faded there wasn't one person there but 4! Obviously this shocked people, but they were quickly calmed down when Keiji interrupted.

"Anyways! Getting back to business, if you could all shut up for a second there's something very important you all need to know." Keiji said loudly.

The 4 men, and Riola stepped into the crowd as Keiji spoke again.

"As many of you know, it's kinda...Raining blood at the moment...Well we know why..." Keiji said again.

" You do?!?!" I spoke out loud.

Finally maybe I could find the answer to what was causing all this.

"Yeah...But Hanzo can explain it better then me, so I'll let him do it.." Keiji said.

Hanzo walked out in front of everyone and began to speak.

"Yes well... Most of you are aware of the woods at the back of this mansion correct?" Hanzo said.

"Yeah, what about them?..." Someone from the crowd said.

"Well... Those woods go back, for many miles away from the city. If you follow them far enough, they eventually open up into a large plain-like area. Well not long ago, a man by the name of Nobunaga Oda, erected a fortress there." Hanzo said.

"Nobunaga Oda?...Who's that?" I heard Shadow say from where ever he was in the room.

"He is feared around the globe as the Demon King...And for good reason. He has an army of demons, monsters and other assorted creatures known as the "Genma" that do his bidding loyally. The Genma themselves are capable of amazing feats. Small groups of them can take out entire cities. Not to mention Nobunaga has many strong generals that he keeps close by that also serve him loyally. And Nobunaga himself has many in-human abilities...Of course no one knows them all, because it's rare for anyone who's ever faced him to come out alive..." Hanzo explained.

"Ok so... What does he have to do with the rain?" Mell asked from the crowd.

"Well... The Demon King, has been researching a certain ritual recently...Although we didn't think there was any truth to it until now. Nobunaga is attempting the Zodiac Ritual... He sent some of his generals, out all over the world to find everything he needed, and today was the day where everything was gathered together. With all the materials he needed found, Nobunaga performed a demonic ritual. The result of that ritual is the blood rain..." Hanzo said.

"What's the blood rain supposed to do?" I heard Yuna ask, next to me.

" That is where the real trouble comes into play. You see when Nobunaga, performed the ritual, it opened millions of tiny little portals in the sky world-wide. They're so small in fact that their invisible to the naked eye. Anyways the blood isn't actually falling from the sky as rain does. It's coming out of all the portals, which are linked to the Destroyer's Realm...A very evil place comparable to Hell its self. After the blood rain comes in contact with matter, it gives off an undetectable "fume" if you will. Although the fume is very hard to find, seeing as it has no smell, cannot be seen, and bears a very close chemical structure to normal oxygen, my boss has found proof that it exists." Hanzo explained.

(Well that doesn't sound good...) I thought. Judging from the way this guy was talking, none of this was going to be cheerful news. Regardless, Hanzo continued.

" Once these fumes come out into the atmosphere they all float, into a specific spot in the sky that is designated during the summoning ritual. As these fumes gather, they begin to form another portal...This one on a much larger scale. At first it starts out the way it is currently. Completely invisible to the normal human eye, and incredibly small, similar to the same portals the blood is pouring out of. But this portal is different. As more and more fumes gather, the portal will increase in size gradually. When the portal finally gets large enough, The Destroyer, Zodiac will be summoned forth through the portal. And then...Err...Maybe I should stop here." Hanzo said.

"No, everything else you've explained is already disturbing enough...You may as well tell us what this Zodiac will do..." Ultima said from the crowd.

"True...I suppose you have a point. In that case, after Zodiac has been successfully summoned, it will proceed to destroy everything. Legends tell that Zodiac is unstoppable, and if he makes it to our world he will destroy everything and everyone. The entire planet will be annilated in a matter of minutes. Not only that, Zodiac has the power to warp between dimensions. Once he gets done with ours, he will move on to others... And given a few days all of existence will be eradicated...Of course all of that is technically speculation, but everything else about the legend has proved to be true so far... We don't want to take any chances with that last bit." Hanzo said.

As one might expect, that last bit caused a bit of alarm in the crowd. People began panicking wildly, and yelling things to each other.

"Destroy all of existence?!?!?! How can we stop something like that?!?!" A woman yelled from the crowd.

" It's the end of the world!!!!" Someone else yelled.

"We're all doomed!!!" A third person yelled.

"HEY! HEY! Everybody calm down! We have a PLAN to stop this from happening you know!" Keiji yelled louder then everyone else was.

Not really have much else of a choice, but to continue running around and screaming, Everyone stopped and listened again.

"I'll take it from here Hanzo... Ok so you see, there is a way to stop the ritual. If the caster of the ritual dies, before Zodiac is summoned, then all the portals vanish and the blood rain will evaporate. So if we kill Nobunaga, then everything will go back to normal... And that's where all of you come in..." Keiji said.

"What do you need us for?" Someone from the crowd asked.

" We need all of you, to form a miniature army with us to fight back against Zodiac. Only the strongest around get to fight in the Super Smash Bros. tournament you know. With all of you guys on our side we'll have an army of very strong professionals." Keiji said.

"I don't know...Shouldn't we inform, like the military or something? They could come in with tanks and bombs and stuff and kill that Nobunaga guy no problem." Someone else from the crowd said.

" Alright then, you can walk to the police station and explain to the guy in charge there, that an evil man, has raised an army of demons, performed a demonic ritual and is attempting to summon a massive beast of death that will destroy everything that exists, and see if they believe you." Keiji said.

"That's true I suppose, but the same goes for us. All of this is rather hard to believe...How do we know any of it is true at all?" I heard Rikku's friend in black say near me.

" Well I'm sure by tomorrow when the portal is humongous you'll believe me...But Nobunaga was the one who attacked your mansion earlier... Those 4 guys and that chick can profess to that." Keiji said.

"I still think we should try our luck with the military..." The same person from before said.

"Look we're not going to the military ok? Even if they did believe us, they wouldn't do much good. It will take roughly two full clips of ammo in the standard military weaponry, to take out one Genma. By the time the situation escalated to the point where tanks and bombs would be brought in, it will already be too late and Zodiac will be staring them down. And besides, Nobunaga is very good at covering his tracks. Even if the police came, they'd find nothing but an abandoned fortress in the woods, and then we would have no clue where Nobunaga was and chances are we'd be unable to locate him before the ritual is completed." Keiji said.

"So yeah, I suppose that wraps it up... If you guys don't help us, then I suppose all is lost... So will you do it?" Hanzo said stepping forward.

(Hmph... So the little ninja wants me to help him eh?...This is going to be a drag, I can already tell... But this Nobunaga guy sounds really strong...Once I beat him I'll become famous all over the world, for my sword skill and I could quit this stupid tournament that I already hate..) I thought. I nodded my head. I had made my decision, I would help these two warriors.

All the other people in the room, began chatting to each other, discussing the pros and cons of this whole ordeal. But eventually everyone decided on the same thing. If something wasn't done then the world was screwed.

"Ok Keiji... Everyone's decided to join... We'll help you and Hanzo save the world." Ultima said.

"Good...Then from this moment, we have officially formed the Alliance Against Zodiac, the AAZ... Seeing as how we know the most of this situation, Hanzo and I will lead." Keiji said.

"I'm not too sure about that... Providing all this information was nice of you and all, but how can we trust you? I mean after all you WERE the one who killed Ramza..." One of the 4 men, who had formed in the white light earlier said. He was wearing a dark cloak.

'Err... Yeah I was hoping you wouldn't mention that... Yeah, I admit it I killed him... But things are different now! I refuse to be a part of Nobunaga's operations anymore!" Keiji said.

Evidently it convinced most people, as although as shocked as they were, no one else objected to Keiji and Hanzo's leadership. Not like we had much of a choice in the matter anymore. We'd all already agreed to join this thing.

"So how long will it take for the portal to open all the way?" Someone asked.

" Likely a day to a day and a half." Hanzo answered.

"Ok then, now Hanzo and I are going to examine what you can all do. We will then place you, into units, depending on what we think you'll be best at." Keiji said.

So they did just that. Keiji and Hanzo began going to everyone, one-by-one and talking to them. Then they would be assigned to certain jobs. Mell and Ultima were to stay back, and heal any injured that came to them. Some people were to be put on the frontline, while others would stay back until they were called in. Bored, at waiting for my turn to come I turned to face Rikku, Yuna, and their grey-haired friend.

9:00 P.M. 6/11

"How are you doing?" I asked Rikku.

Her lip was bleeding. She'd probably been biting it, due to all the lightening that was flashing. I'm sure the recent announcements didn't help her much either.

"I-I'm just fi-fine..." Rikku said stuttering.

"You don't look fine..." I said to her.

She looked rather pale actually, and a little scared. Whether that was from the lightening or the announcement, I didn't know.

"No really I'm ok..." Rikku said unassuringly

(The way she's acting she must be scared out of her mind...) I thought. I opened my mouth to say something, but I was interrupted by Keiji. Apparently he and Hanzo had gotten to us.

9:15 P.M. 6/11

"Alright, we'll start with you 3 ladies first. What can you three do?" Keiji asked.

Yuna stepped forward.

"Well we can do lots of things... I'm pretty good with guns, Paine over there is good with a sword, and Rikku's pretty fast... But we can all cast magic, and sword fight and heal and stuff." Yuna said.

"I see...And the airship that's outside...It belongs to one of you correct"? Hanzo said.

"Yeah, how did you know?" Yuna asked.

"My network of information knows a lot of things... I'll leave it at that..." Hanzo said.

"You have an airship? Does it have guns on it?" Keiji asked before Yuna could reply to Hanzo's last statement.

"No I'm sorry... It doesn't have any weapons." Yuna replied.

"Darn...Ah well it will still be useful... Alright then, you three will be Support Unit 7... Please go back to your airship, and keep watch. We'll contact you somehow, if we need extra strength and then and only then should you 3 enter the battlefield. Got it?" Keiji said.

The three of them nodded, probably happy not to be out in front, and Keiji turned to me.

"Alright, shorty what can you do?" Keiji said.

" I kick ass with a sword... And after that comment, I'd be happy to demonstrate on you..." I said annoyed.

"Come on, a little fella like you being good with a sword?..." Keiji said laughing.

I growled at him in anger, ready to attack when someone spoke up near us.

"You mean-a him? Oh yeah I've-a seen him fight. He's-a good" A male voice said.

I turned to see who spoke to see a mustached man in blue overalls and a red shirt. (I've seen him somewhere... Oh yeah I remember now. I saved him during that fight with the monsters yesterday...) I thought remembering the moment.

"Really Mario?...Hmm...I'm still not sure..." Keiji said, looking me over.

"I vouch for him too. I've seen him fight plenty of times. He can hold his own and then some pretty well." An all too familiar voice said.

I turned to see Kirby staring at us a little ways away.

"I-I've seen him fight too... H-he's good." I heard Rikku stutter from behind me.

"Hmm... Well I guess if everyone says so... You don't mind going out in the frontline do you Mr... What's your name again?" Keiji said.

"Meta Knight to you... And no I don't care. I prefer it that way." I said glaring back at Keiji.

"Alright then, we'll add you into Unit 4... Their over there. Captain Falcon is the unit leader." Keiji said pointing to a group of Smashers across the room.

"If you wouldn't mind, will you please stay with your unit at all times until further notice?" Hanzo said to me.

He then turned to Yuna, Rikku, and Paine. (At least that was what Yuna had called her.)

"Could you three return to your ship and stay there please? Do you see that purple thing over there?" Hanzo said to them, pointing to a light purple creature with a tail.

"That's Mewtwo. He's our communicator between units. He'll notify you through telepathy, when we have orders for you." Hanzo said.

The three girls nodded and Keiji and Hanzo moved onto the next person.

"Great...We-we have to go thr-through that storm..." Rikku said.

"Come on Rikku, I bet we can make it back to the Celsius before any lightening flashes!" Yuna said assuringly.

The three of them turned to leave, but I called out to Rikku before they got out of the room.

"Hey Rikku!" I called out.

"Ye-yeah Meta?" She said turning around to look at me.

"...That piece of junk you call a ship has flares in it doesn't it?" I asked her.

"Hmm? Yeah...Why?" She replied.

"It's bound to get dangerous sooner or later...If something happens... Send a flare up into the sky... And I'll...Err... I'll come flying and kill anything that doesn't belong in that damn ship..." I said to Rikku.

"You will?... Ok...Thank you Meta..." She said, flashing a brief little smile as she turned around and walked out of the door.

(Why in the world did I say that?) I thought. I suppose I just couldn't stand seeing that girl look so...Pathetic. If that statement had made her feel any better at all... Then I was happy... Shrugging it off, I decided it was time, to go meet my unit.

9:30 P.M. 6/11

I walked across the room to the man Keiji pointed me too. The man, whom was dressed in what looked like a racing outfit of some sort turned to look at me. He was wearing an odd helmet.

"Keiji put you in here with us?" He asked.

"Yeah..." I replied to him.

"I see... What's your name new guy?" The man said.

"Meta Knight..." I replied rather coldly. I hated being called the new guy. It made me seem weak.

"Ok then Meta Knight. I'm Captain Falcon. Keiji put me in charge of this unit." Captain Falcon said.

"Let me get one thing straight...I don't do orders very well..." I said to Captain Falcon.

There was no way in hell I was going to let this queer dressed guy tell me what to do in a fight.

" We'll see...Anyways I suppose I should introduce you to the rest of Unit 4 so far." Captain Falcon said.

It seemed he didn't believe me about the taking orders thing. Ah well, he would learn in due time that I never joked around when it came to fighting.

"That's Bowser..." Captain Falcon said, pointing to the large green turtle-like monster.

I knew who Bowser was already.

"Try not to get in my way runt..." Bowser said grunting at me.

"Try to ignore Bowser if you can..." Captain Falcon whispered too me, apparently sensing my anger.

I glared at Bowser for a little while but eventually calmed down.

"And this is Snake...He's new like you are..." Captain Falcon said.

I looked over at Snake, who was leaning against the wall, smoking a cigarette. He nodded his head towards me and looked away.

"Snake doesn't talk much..." Captain Falcon said to me.

(He doesn't look like much of a fighter either...) I thought, looking at Snake.

"Alright, has everybody gotten a position?" Keiji asked out loud.

No one spoke up.

"Alright good. For now, you may all do as you please. Hanzo and I, along with a couple of the Unit Leaders are going to start discussing an attack plan. Stay with your units, until we know what we're going to do. Mewtwo will contact everyone through his telepathy when we have orders for you." Keiji said.

(Great...So I'm still stuck with these guys...) I thought.

"Hey Falcon..." I said to Captain Falcon.

"Yeah?" He said turning to look at me.

"Can we go, like into another room or something? It's too crowded here for my tastes..." I said to him.

"Hmm... Do you mind Bowser?" Captain Falcon said.

"I agree with the puffball, let's go somewhere else." Bowser said crossing his arms.

"What about you Snake?" Captain Falcon said.

"I don't care either way..." Snake said slowly.

"Alright... Then sure, let's find a room on the first floor to stay in for a little while..." Captain Falcon said.

He led the 3 of us out of the living room and past the stairs. We looked through a hallway, and entered a random empty room. It looked kind of nice I guess. 2 beds, and a dresser and some other normal bedroom stuff. I hopped up onto the closest bed I could find and laid my head back. There was nothing to do now but wait.

"So Bowser...How are your kids doing?" I heard Captain Falcon ask.

" Their great actually... Junior's painting skills are getting better by the day, and Ludwig is working on some invention of his.." Bowser replied.

"How old is Ludwig now anyway?" Captain Falcon asked.

"He hit 16 a month or two ago... Their all growing pretty quickly..." Bowser replied.

"Good, good... So Meta Knight... Who were those girls you were with earlier?" Captain Falcon said.

I looked up, and he was looking at me.

" I guess you could call them friends of mine..." I replied to him.

" I don't know... I've seen you around them almost every time I've seen you around the mansion...You sure you don't have a little crush?" Captain Falcon said chuckling.

"WHAT! NO!" I yelled back at him.

"Your being awfully defensive about it..." Bowser said.

"AM NOT!" I yelled back.

" Then why are you yelling?" Snake asked.

"Err...Because... You know what you three can shove it!" I said crossing my arms and glaring.

All three of them laughed.

I turned away, angry I was getting picked on by my own comrades.

"Hey chill out Meta Knight, we're just messing with you..." Captain Falcon said.

I didn't turn around again, and continued staring at the wall. When all of a sudden a voice came into my head. It was similar to the way Bestivous had spoken, but it was a different voice.

"Attention everybody! We got a situation going on." The voice said.

"That's Mewtwo! Keiji must have our orders ready." Captain Falcon said.

" There's a large army coming in from the woods! Keiji recognized some of the generals and it's Nobunaga's army. Their making a beeline for the mansion. All frontline units are to deploy to the back-yard of the Mansion. Unit's 1 and 2 defend the center. Unit 3, should defend the west side of the Mansion. Unit 4 should defend the east side. All remaining Frontline Units, should go wherever they deem best. All support units should stay on stand-by and be ready to dive into the battle and assist at any moment. Support Unit 7, shine as much light onto the woods behind the mansion as you can with your ship. That's all of Keiji's orders for now." Mewtwo said.

" This sounds bad... Looks like we got attacked before we could come up with an attack plan. Alright guys, we got ordered to defend the east side of the Mansion. Let's roll!" Captain Falcon said.

(Finally...Now I won't be bored...How nice of Nobunaga to do me the favor of coming straight to me instead of making me hunt him down...) I thought. I got back off of the bed eager to fight. I could finally test out my new powers in a real battle.

10:00 P.M. 6/11

Captain Falcon, Snake, Bowser and I all dashed out of the room as fast as we could, and ran out the front door. Going as fast as we could we went around the right side of the Mansion, where we had been told to be. It was dark outside. The lights at the mansion were on, so we could see near there, and the Celsius was flying around shining lights into the woods. But it could only cover so much area at once. For the most part we'd be almost blind in this fight.

I drew my sword and looked around as best I could. I didn't see anyone so far... We waited a minute or two, when we heard Mewtwo speak again.

"Ok, all units are in position. The army will be on us any second now, so be ready...As for the darkness...Well...We can't do much about it. Keiji wishes you luck." Mewtwo said.

"You guys ready?" Captain Falcon said.

No one answered him. I'd been ready for a fight ever since I got out of that damn attic. I was excited to test out my new weapons. The 4 of us waited... Until finally we saw them. Genma... As Keiji and Hanzo had called them. A lot of them right on the edge of the woods. They looked like zombies...They probably were. They were all shirtless, but had no skin on their chest, so their bones were visible. Their heads were merely skulls, and they were all wearing little Japanese style hats. Each one had a sword in it's hand. It was impossible to tell how many there were, since it was too dark. But I could still hear them...And there were a lot...

Almost immediately groups of them dashed out from the woods toward our position. I could hear fighting in the distance, the same thing was probably happening to the other Units as well. I dashed forward to meet the charging forces. I met them with a slice to the nearest one's stomach. I sliced it in half, and didn't even stop running. I jumped up at another one's head and in the blink of an eye sent it rolling on the ground. I brought my sword up the second I landed, to block a slash from a third Genma. It followed the first slash with another, and I rolled out of the way to dodge it. I sent a stab through it's back, and it screamed in pain. Then I heard foot-steps behind me...Genma foot-steps. I leaped over the Genma I'd just stabbed, and heard it yelp in pain again, as the slash that was meant for me dove into it's flesh. Not wasting any time, I grabbed the blade-end of my sword which was still stuck through the Genma I had stabbed and yanked it out quickly. I sent a killing slash into the now mutilated Genma, and dashed around it, sending a second slash into the Genma directly behind it.

I stopped for a second and looked around. There were plenty of Genma close to me. They had encircled me during my fight thus far, and it was likely they were all about to gang up on me. (Looks like it's finally time to try out my new weapons) I thought as I concentrated as I had before. Instantly the light from last time I'd practiced this came back and engulfed my sword. When it disappeared I heard a little "plop" as the spiked ball hit the ground softly. In my hand was a chain, instead of a hilt. In the blink of an eye, I yanked the chain in a circle around myself, sending the spiked ball crashing through every single Genma's body that had gotten to close.

Now getting the message to back up, the remaining Genma near me avoided the rest of the ball's path and charged me when it was clear. Yanking the chain back and then thrusting it forward quickly, sent the ball out of it's circle of death, and into the face of the Genma I'd directed it at crushing it's skull. I repeated this process, a few times with other Genma, and over the course of about 5 minutes I'd probably killed at least 20 Genma. All the ones that had been around me were dead...So now I could go on the offensive.

I smiled to myself and concentrated again. The same light came over the ball and chain again, and this time when it dispersed the golden trident was in it's place. My smile turning into a smirk, I dashed to the edge of the woods, where I was sure there would be some Genma somewhere. Sure enough I was right, I stabbed forward with the trident as a Genma jumped at me. Tossing it aside, I twirled the trident around and smacked another near-by Genma in the head. Seeing yet another Genma in the distance, I reared my arm back and threw the trident threw the air. Bulls-eye! I nailed him right in the head. (Alright NOW GET BACK!) I called out to the trident with my mind. In a flash the trident was out of the Genma's bleeding noggin and back in my hand. I charged another Genma, and sent a stab through it's chest. I then fired off a blast of thunder from the trident, that went through the Genma it was stabbed in, and hit another one directly behind it. The result killed them both. I started to charge towards another target when I heard Captain Falcon call out to me.

"Hey Meta Knight come back here! Your too far in, we're supposed to be defending, not attacking!" Captain Falcon said.

I ignored him. I refused to take an order from the likes of HIM. I concentrated on the trident, and the same light as always came over it. When it vanished, an axe was in my hands. I dashed further, a little ways into the woods this time, and began hacking any Genma I saw. When all of a sudden the light from the Celsius happened to shine where I was. It was then that I noticed that...That was ALOT of Genma right next to me... Too many to count... There was no way I'd be able to kill them all with the axe anyway, yet they were coming for me. I didn't have enough time to change the axe into another weapon. The axe wasn't necessarily the best weapon for blocking either. There was only one conclusion to this fight. I was doomed. I braced myself for pain when...

"FALCON KICK!" I heard someone say, as an orange flash flew by me, taking out about 10 Genma.

When the dust cleared, Captain Falcon was staring at me. I heard a roar and turned around, to see Bowser, breathing fire on some more Genma. Then an explosion rang out, sending the rest of the Genma, that Captain Falcon and Bowser hadn't already taken out flying. I turned again to see Snake, tossing grenades into groups of Genma. All three of them were soaked in blood. But then again the blood rain was still pouring. I'd imagine I was too.

I merely looked at them. Not one of us said anything to each other, they just looked at me, and all 4 of us began running back where we were supposed to be positioned. Before we got there however, Mewtwo's voice rang out in my head.

"Ok! Keiji says we've held Nobunaga's forces off long enough. All forces are to take the offensive now. Push them back into the woods, and if you see Nobunaga, take him out!" Mewtwo said.

I chuckled to myself, and looked over at Captain Falcon. Did we dare to risk going back into that abyss of Genma? Captain Falcon looked dead at me.

"You heard him. Let's roll!" Captain Falcon yelled.

10:30 P.M. 6/11.


	16. Chapter 14

Sorry once more for the long wait on the next chapter

Sorry once more for the long wait on the next chapter. My will to keep writing this thing is draining fast. Ah well. What happens happens. I may cut the story short, I haven't really decided yet.

_Disclaimer: Eh you guys know what I'm gonna say…. I don't own nothing used in this fic._

**Chapter 14**

Vaati

9:00 A.M. 6/12

I slowly opened my eyes once more. Sleeping had turned out harder, then I'd thought on the floor of a cave, but I'd slept through far worse in the past. I'd been woken up almost 5 times in the middle of the night by the sound of thunder. I sat up and glanced over beside me. Yep, Raveness was still laying there...A mere few centimeters away from me. I was afraid she might have left during the night, unable to bear with the truth of who I was. There was something...Comforting, about the fact she hadn't left already. But it didn't make this any easier. We would have to part ways today... It was for her own good.

I quietly stood up, doing my best not to disturb Raveness. I walked as quietly as I could, over to the entrance of the cave. It was morning. I then noticed something, that I was surprised I'd missed up to this point. It wasn't raining blood... There were still puddles of it on the ground here and there, and the plants and trees were soaked in the stuff. But all that would eventually go away. And even though I was gazing out at blood-soaked woods, it was still reassuring to know the blood rain had stopped. (Now if only I could figure out what in world caused it...) I thought. But I shrugged it off.

I stood at the entrance for a few minutes. It was finally time for me to go. I would simply walk out the cave...And eventually the woods...And into a different city. No one would bother me...At least not for a little while. And yet... I felt sad... Raveness was the only person who had ever accepted me. Hell she even seemed like she liked me...It just didn't seem right, that I was forced to throw her away. But what other option did I have? I remained at the entrance, for a few minutes longer, standing in indecision. Finally I reconfirmed my previous thoughts. I couldn't put Raveness through my tortures...It wasn't fair to her. I'd finally decided. I was going to go through with this. (But... I suppose there's no harm, in looking at her...Just one last time) I thought. I turned around, and walked the little ways into the cave where we had slept.

She was still laying there asleep. She looked rather...Well...Beautiful. My mind flashed back to the moment in that other cave, where she'd pressed her lips up against mine. I would never ever forget, for the rest of my existence, how good that moment had felt. (Well...That's that...) I thought. I turned around to finally be on my way, when I heard a soft little groan. I turned back around, to find Raveness, opening her eyes to look at me.

" Morning Vaati..." She said groggily.

(Damn it! This is going to complicate things...Why didn't I just leave when I had the chance!) I thought, cursing myself in my head.

" Good morning...And good-bye..." I said woefully, as I turned around again and made for the entrance.

"Vaati! Wait!" I heard Raveness call from behind me.

I increased my pace. I didn't want to have to face her now. I didn't make it to the entrance however, before I felt her warm embrace around me.

"Please don't go..." She whispered softly.

" I told you already... I refuse to put you through the horrors you'll have to face if you stay with me... I already explained my past... It's too dangerous!" I said.

"Yes...You did tell me your past...And...I suppose it's time I told you mine..." She said softly. "Please... Hear me out before you go..."

I wanted to immediately say no. Staying with her any longer, would only make this ordeal even more painful then it was already. Yet... Something in my mind was telling me to stay.

"...Fine..." I finally managed to stutter out.

She pulled me back into the part of the cave where we'd slept.

"Thank you...Well... Here I go.." She said laughing to herself nervously. "Sorry...I never thought I'd be willfully telling anyone this..."

I merely stared at her, waiting on her to start. It seemed she'd gotten the message.

"Well...When I was a small girl... I wandered upon a small cave near my home village. Whenever I went near there I would always here...A voice...Telling me to come in... And I eventually gave in... Little did I know, the cave housed the seal of a feared demon that had once tortured my village... His name was Xalces...And I would later find out, that even mentioning his name in my village was taboo... But I was deceived. Xalces talked to me often...Telling me that he could do marvelous things for me, if I could find a way to break him out of his prison... I believed every single one of his lies... And then, when I was 8 years old I finally found a way to release him and I didn't even hesitate when I did it..." Raveness said slowly.

She looked like she was on the verge of tears.

"And then?" I asked curiously.

"The thing about Xalces is...He's a parasitical demon. He has to have a host to survive...When I released him, he forced himself into my body, where he remains to this day... I then realized my mistake...But I tried my hardest to continue living my life normally...Yet when I went back to my village, anyone I came in contact with immediately realized what I'd done...Before they had all treated me so nicely...They were all so very nice...But after that...They all looked at me with hatred... They called me things like "Demon Child" and demanded that I be executed...Even my own parents shunned me away, refusing to call me their daughter any longer...But the village chief knew all about Xalces...The only way he can change host bodies, is for the one he's currently inhabiting to die...To execute me, would seal the fate of the entire village...So instead I was exiled from the village..." Raveness explained.

She'd finally started sobbing in the middle of all that. Yet she had more to say. I let her continue.

"The worse part is...Xalces remains with me even now... He taunts me almost daily with insults... And he constantly causes dangerous things to happen to me...Like in that cave...The pitfall you saved me from, was his doing...That living armor with the axe was his work... Oh Vaati he's laughing at me right now... Even after I left the village, I always tried to make friends. But whenever I finally found someone who would hang out with me... Xalces would always run them off with his tricks... And as such... I've been alone my entire life..." Raveness finally finished.

I came forward, and hugged her. An attempt to console her I guess.

(So...She's...Like me... She's been alone her entire life. And never really had anyone who cared...) I thought. It was official.

I was re-thinking this whole situation. This woman, had put up with extreme mental stress her entire life. She probably went through the same horrors as I did, if not worse ones, every day. If she could bear those...Then maybe she could bear mine also.

" I...I see...I'm sorry..." I said, stuttering.

I wasn't really sure what I could say that would cheer her up.

"I feel like, you're the only friend I've ever really had Vaati..." Raveness said, looking up at me.

(If she only know how true that was for me too...) I thought.

Raveness was the only person who had ever spoken nicely to me, even after finding out who I really was. She had healed me when I was injured, and even stuck by me when things were dangerous. I had a lot of troubles...My sanity...My enemies... And my future... But maybe with someone to share them with... It just might be bearable after all.

" Fine...I've decided... I'll stay with you Raveness..." I said to Raveness.

"You will?..." She said back. She seemed surprised.

"Yeah. Of course...And you can tell that little demon of yours, that he doesn't have a trick big enough to run me off..." I replied to her.

Raveness looked relieved. I could already tell she was feeling better. And her sobs were decreasing.

"Th-...Thanks Vaati... You really are a good friend..." She said back to me.

There she went again, speaking like that. Never before had I been referred too as someone's friend.

I was about to say something more, when I was interrupted by the sound of a stomach growling.

"Hehe... Sorry... I haven't had much to eat in a while... So much for the moment. " Raveness said giggling.

(Good. She's feeling better... Probably due to finally being able to tell someone about all her trauma...) I thought.

She had a point though. I couldn't remember seeing her eat, since we met, and I hadn't eaten either since my short-lived stay at the Smash Mansion. Although my body was used to abnormally large periods of time, with no food. I still had to eat every now and then.

"Don't worry about it...I could eat a piece or two of meat myself... So, let's gather us up something to eat!" I said back to Raveness.

"And how are we going to do that?" She replied.

"The simplest method. Hunt it down and kill it." I said to her.

"You hunt your food?" She asked me.

"Of course. You don't?" I replied.

"No... I just kind of did whatever I could... Sometimes, people would let me do work in exchange for food...But there were some times I was forced to beg, and even steal..." Raveness said sadly.

"You have to do what you have to do to survive. It's the way things work..." I said back, in an attempt to comfort her.

"I guess your right...Still I don't know how to hunt..." She replied.

"Well then I'll go hunt the food... And you can start a fire, to cook it on. I can handle the rest myself." I said to her.

She commented, on how she felt bad for putting all the dirty work on me. But eventually I convinced her to go along with it. I would go find an animal to kill, and she would start a fire to cook it on while she waited for me. So, the two of us exited the cave, and wandered off in different directions.

I wandered around the woods, taking special care to make sure I didn't get lost. I was looking for any signs that an animal may have come through somewhere. These were woods after all. There had to be some deer here somewhere. And who knows? Maybe if I got lucky, I could find a bear. So I wandered...And wandered...And wandered...

11:00 A.M. 6/12

It was no good. I couldn't find anything. I'd been walking around for hours now, and not seen a trace of animal life. (Maybe the blood rain from last night scared them all off... I have had to go around some puddles of the stuff... They might have washed out traces of them I suppose) I thought. Oh well, I was going to have to turn back. I'd already gone too far in the woods anyway. It would take me another hour or two to get back to the cave, and I was sure Raveness was already worrying about me.

I turned around to begin heading back to the cave, when I noticed a clearing not that far away. In the clearing however, appeared to be some sort of tower... Like a medieval tower. Yet it didn't look ancient at all. It didn't even look old for that matter, like it had recently been built. Intrigued a little, I decided to look at it a little bit closer, and slowly walked over to the edge of the clearing where it was located. I gazed at the tower, to discover a rather startling fact. There were Stalfos around the tower...A good number of them. I had been too far away to see them before, but there had to be at least 15 of them patrolling the perimeter of the tower. They were lacking armor, save for some on their shoulders and shields in their hands. And their blades looked sharper then I remembered. But it made no sense why Stalfos would be here. They were only supposed to be found in Hyrule, and Hyrule was a long way away from here.

(I have to know why in the world those monsters are here... But there isn't anywhere for me to take cover, if they get violent... I suppose I'll have to get violent back.) I thought, as I stepped out into the clearing. The Stalfos noticed me as I drew closer, and I drew my blade expecting an attack. Instead however, they merely bowed, before pointing around the tower. After that they resumed their patrols, seemingly ignoring me. Now even more curious, I walked in the direction they'd pointed to me, to find a door leading into the tower, with two larger then normal Stalfos in front of it. They looked at me, for a minute, before stepping aside and pushing the door open, motioning for me to walk inside.

(How hospitable of them...) I thought, as I sheathed my sword and stepped into the tower. It was apparent the Stalfos weren't going to attack me. I walked in a little ways, before another Stalfos appeared, and began leading me around. We walked up many flights of stairs before entering a hallway, and from there the Stalfos merely pointed to a large door at the end. Getting the message, I walked up to the door as the Stalfos turned and went back down. Looking out a window in the hallway, It seemed I was now at the top of the tower, but that didn't matter. I just wanted to know what was up with this place. Finally I cautiously opened the door, and stepped into a large room.

11:15 A.M. 6/12

The room looked kind of like a throne room of some sort, only minus a throne. It was big, yet it had all the furnishings of an average bedroom. In said room, standing in front of a window looking out of it, was a large dark man. Suddenly everything about this place made sense.

"Ganondorf...I should have guessed..." I said to him with disgust.

" Indeed you should have...It's been a while Vaati... I thought you were still imprisoned...You don't know how much of a joy it is to see you..." He said calmly, turning to look at me.

"I escaped again... This time by myself... And it was your fault I ended up back in there anyway!" I replied coldly.

"Oh come now Vaati, your not still angry about that are you?... I did whatever it took to win... And wasn't that your motto?" Ganondorf said, as calm as could be.

"Fuck you! It was a betrayal! Not just some tactic to stay alive! Now shut your mouth and start explaining! Why are you here?! I heard Link got you banished to the Sacred Realm, how are you here right now?! And more importantly what is this tower?!" I said, raising my voice angrily.

"Calm down for a moment, and I'll tell you..." Ganondorf replied, some of his coldness slipping into his tone.

That was the thing about Ganondorf. 90 percent of the time, he was always so calm, as if nothing in the world were wrong. And yet, he was the most vile and heinous person I'd ever met on the inside. In the blink of an eye, he could go from the calm collected person that was in front of me now, to deceitful murderer willingly to do anything and sacrifice anyone for his ambition.

"Well? Start talking!" I said, lowering my voice slightly.

"Tell me Vaati. Have you ever heard of a certain tournament... Known as "Super Smash Bros."?" Ganondorf said, his voice now perfectly calm once more.

"Indeed I have...What of it?" I said back.

"Well you see, A while ago I received an invitation to join...With very intriguing terms of agreement...If I agreed to participate, then every year when the tournament began I would be set free from the Sacred Realm. When it was over and done with, I would be re-sealed until the next year..." Ganondorf explained.

"They let you out?!" I said in shock.

"Oh I assure you, the first time or two the Sages were very cautious. They watched every move I made, ready to re-seal me at any moment. So I intentionally played innocent...And now I'm even allowed to leave a few days earlier then the start of the tournament, for the vacation all the Smashers take together. Of course I've never gone one time... But I never threatened anyone...And soon enough the Sages left me be...So whenever it came time for the annual vacation, I would instead, sneak into Hyrule...And slowly but surely re-build my army of minions..." Ganondorf said, a creepy smirk going across his face at that last remark.

"Your plotting something..." I said back to him.

(not exactly a very shocking fact...) I thought.

"Indeed, oh but first I suppose I should answer your other question...About this tower." Ganondorf said.

" So get on with it then!" I replied annoyed.

"Fine then... You see little demon, this is a defensive tower for a certain Demon King near-by." Ganondorf said.

"Demon King?.." I replied questionably.

"Yes, his name is Nobunaga Oda... And he has a castle a short walk away from here. In order to protect it, he ordered his forces to erect a bunch of towers around the castle in a circle. This tower is one of those." Ganondorf explained.

"That still doesn't explain why your here...You were never one who would take orders from someone else..." I said back.

Ganondorf laughed.

"You think I would serve someone as atrocious as Nobunaga? It's all part of my plan... When I was released, I went back into Hyrule, and brought a few of my minions with me back here. We attacked the first tower we saw, and overtook it in mere minutes. The fool who dares to call himself the Demon King, doesn't even have a clue that we're here." Ganondorf said. His cynicalness was showing through clear as day now.

"Let me guess...Your going to attack the main castle as well..." I said coldly once more.

" So you didn't lose all your intelligence after all. The rest of my monsters are on their way here now. When they arrive, the Demon King is as good as dead." Ganondorf said evilly.

"What's the point? You can't be going to all this trouble if there isn't a good reason." I replied.

"The Demon King happened upon a certain spell. If he finishes it, he will summon an almighty demon that will destroy everything and everyone... But of course I have better uses for such a pet... To put it bluntly, I plan on killing Nobunaga, finishing the spell myself, and using the demon to control the world!" Ganondorf said, maniacally.

"Hmph! Fine then..." I said turning to leave.

"Leaving so soon Vaati?... Please stay a while..." Ganondorf said, his tone still maniacal.

"For what? So you can get me trapped again?" I said, turning back around to face him.

"Link isn't anywhere around, you can't be trapped again. And I merely want your assistance for my little plan...Your powers will make things easier" Ganondorf said.

"Sorry, you can forget that! I'll turn myself into Link before I fight alongside you again!" I said back.

"Oh will you? But Vaati, you can have all the power you want when we succeed! And isn't that what you always wanted?" Ganondorf said, sneeringly.

"Not anymore!" I said sneering back.

"Then what do you have left? You can't live a normal life, and no one will accept you for your crimes! Face it demon, your nothing more then a mere pawn, who can't do anything but be sacrificed for a more important piece!" Ganondorf exclaimed.

I stopped dead in my tracks. (He... He's wrong... He has to be...) I thought. Was there really no way for me to atone for my mistakes? I was aware that I would always be hunted down by people like Link and Meta Knight...But I would always be hated by everyone in the world? As much as I hated to admit it...Ganondorf was right... I would never be accepted by anyone. (But what about Raveness?) I suddenly thought. She had accepted me...She even knew what it felt like to go through some of the things I had... She was the only person I'd ever met, that didn't instantly hate me, or try to kill me upon learning my identity. Would it ever be possible... For us to be normal... One thing was for certain. I'd never know the answer to that question if I repeated my past.

" I'm through with evil Ganondorf! Say whatever you want, it won't matter when Link rides up to kick your ass once more!" I said once more turning to leave.

" Very well then...It seems I won't be changing your mind anytime soon... In that case I'm afraid you've become useless!" Ganondorf shouted. His true nature finally clear as day.

In an instant, I was sent sprawling onto the ground, from a huge blow to my back. As soon as I regained my senses I sprang to my feet to face my attacker. Ganondorf's fist was glowing an evil dark purple color, and he was wearing a smirk all the way across his face.

Enraged, I drew my sword and the two of us faced each other. I dashed forward to charge him, but immediately received a blow to the stomach followed by a heavy blow to the face. I was sent flying backwards once more, landed on the ground in deep pain. (Damn it! I don't have time for this!... I don't have a choice. I can't beat him right now. I have no choice but to retreat.) I thought, as I eyed my potential exit. The door was out of the question. Their was no way I'd make it over to it without getting pummeled again. That left only one way. The window Ganondorf was previously looking out of. In the rumble, I'd ended up close to it.

Without a second thought, I lunged through the window, shattering the glass. I manipulated the wind outside, and made it move around myself in a way that would slow my fall considerably. I hit the ground about 15 seconds later, rather softly and began a mad dash towards the woods, where I could hide myself better.

Before I could make it however, some of the Stalfos that had been guarding the outside of the tower blocked my path. I didn't have any time to waste. As quickly as I could I slung some blasts of wind, and had completely decapitated one of them before I even got close to the group. Finally I sliced another one in half as I attempted to charge through, only to get thrown back by shields. I parried an incoming slash and quickly sliced off the arm of the Stalfos that had delivered it. Kicking it to the ground, I followed through with a stab forward straight through the chest of another Stalfos. I sliced and diced yet another one, before my path was finally clear. Seizing my chance I made a bee-line for the woods. A Stalfos or two chased after me, but quickly stopped and went back. (Ganondorf must have called them all back...) I thought as I dashed past tree after tree, afraid to stop running. Why he would do something like that perplexed me but I didn't have time to think on it now. So I merely ran, re-tracing all my steps from earlier today.

11:50 A.M. 6/12

I ran for what felt like hours, but I knew it had probably only been 30 minutes or so. Finally, I stopped, and dove behind the closest tree. For a while longer I merely sat there against the tree...Waiting...Listening...For any sign of pursuit. None ever came. It appeared, for now at least, that I was safe. But then again it was probably safe to assume, that I now had a third chaser to run from. (Ok...This is too much... As soon as I get back to the cave, Raveness and I are getting as far away from this damn place as possible...) I thought, as I stood back up and continued my back-tracking.

It wasn't long however, until I heard rustling near-by. I stopped dead in my tracks, my hand on the hilt of my katana. There it was again! Closer this time. Whatever it was it was heading towards me. Fearing the worst, I drew my katana and waited.

"Vaati!" A voice cried out.

A figure came out of a near-by bush, and I quickly lunged at it.

"AHH!" The voice screamed. It was female... And I recognized it.

I stopped at the last second, throwing myself off to the side before turning around again quickly and embracing Raveness in a hug.

"Don't do that! You almost gave me a heart attack!" She said to me.

"Sorry... I thought you were someone else..." I said in a low tone.

" Who? That girl and that blue thing from earlier?" Raveness asked.

"No...Not them...Someone worse..." I said low once more.

" Tell me..." She said, looking me dead in my eyes.

" I'd rather not talk about it now...Maybe later...Just don't sneak up on me like that for a couple of days..." I said back to her.

She looked down at the ground. I could tell she was worried, but now wasn't the time to talk about Ganondorf. I would tell her eventually, but for now it was best if we just got as far away from here as we could before night fell.

"What are you doing here anyway?" I asked her.

"I came looking for you. I waited for an hour and a half, for you to come back but you never did and I was worried that something might have happened to you..." She replied.

"I told you I was going to hunt for food... It takes a while sometimes you know..." I said back to her.

"I know... But I couldn't find much wood to cook meat on anyway. Most of the wood I found was blood-soaked, and too wet to burn easily..." She said.

" I see... I'm sorry I worried you... We should go. We need to make it as far as we can before tonight." I said, finally letting go of Raveness.

" Why?... Something happened didn't it?!" Raveness exclaimed, in a worried tone of voice.

"Yeah...Something happened... It has to do with the blood rain...And a certain someone from my past... And a demon king... I'll explain later. We don't have time. Now let's go!" I said.

I started to lead her in another direction of the woods, but she yanked back.

"No! I want to know what's going on now Vaati!" She said sternly.

Looking at her, it seemed I wasn't going to shake her resolve. Not to mention, I didn't have time to argue.

"Fine fine... There's this guy in some castle near-by named Nobunaga Oda, and he-" I started to say.

I was stopped in mid-sentence however by the sound of rustling near-by. Instantaneously, I grabbed Raveness's arm and ran as fast as I could in a random direction dragging her along. The only ally I ever had was with me right now. Whoever or whatever had made that sound, would likely not be coming in peace.

"Ah! What's happening?!" Raveness exclaimed.

"There's no more time to talk! Be quiet and come on!" I said back sternly.

Raveness grunted, and I let go of her as she began running willingly alongside me. Something wasn't right though. The rustling sounds were getting louder and closer. Whatever it was, it was catching up to us. Realizing the dreaded fact, that we weren't going to be able to outrun our pursuer, I turned around to face the direction the sounds were coming from. The sounds were far too light for our chaser to be Ganondorf.

"Whoever you are, come out here now and face me!" I cried out.

"I suppose that does get things done the fastest..." A male voice replied from above.

I glared, as a tall male human fell from the treetops, landing on his feet. He had long black hair, and was wearing purple armor over his body. A katana was sheathed as his side.

" The scouts did say there was an...Insect, wandering around our territory. We feared, you were one of the Smashers come to get them back..." The man said calmly.

"What are you talking about?! Who are you?!" I demanded.

"Hmm?...Your not affiliated with them?..." The man asked.

"With who? The Smashers?... No I'm not..." I replied.

"And yet you know my lord's name... Ah well, I suppose it really doesn't matter.." The man said.

"I'll ask one last time... Who are you and what do you want!" I said through clenched teeth.

This man's calmness was becoming disturbing. It reminded me of Ganondorf...

"What good is it for the sheep to know the name of their butcher?" The man replied as calm as ever.

"Because sometimes sheep go astray..." I replied.

"Indeed. Yet those that do, will inevitably meet their end. Their deaths are merely prolonged... You may call me Mitsuhide Akechi." The man said back to me.

"Nice to know... Now what are you doing here?..." I asked.

I drew my katana at last. I sensed only hostility from this man. Despite his calm appearance, there was no way he was just stopping by say hello.

"You may sheathe your blade once more insect. I'm not here for you... I'm merely here for traveling partner" Mitsuhide said pointing behind me.

I heard Raveness gasp in surprise from behind me, at her mention.

"Well in that case you can forget whatever your planning. She's staying with me!" I said, raising my blade.

"So there's no way to convince you to part with her I assume? In that case I suppose I'll be taking her by force..." Mitsuhide replied.

"Your with Nobunaga correct? I've heard bad things about your little cult. You picked the wrong person to mess with!" I yelled out, as I charged forward with my katana raised.

I swung my sword down at Mitsuhide, and in a flash was knocked to the side. I looked back at Mitsuhide to see him staring at Raveness, not me. His sword was drawn, yet when I'd attacked it was sheathed. He'd parried my attack in less then half a second.

"Oh have I now?...I believe you've got that backwards..." Mitsuhide said to me, not even turning to face me.

He charged towards Raveness, as I got back up to face him. (Oh no you don't...) I thought, as I brought my palm in front of me. Mitsuhide was moving shockingly fast. Not wasting any time, I fired off as many blades of wind as I could. All of them missed save for one which struck Mitsuhide in the back. He didn't even flinch however, and his charge resumed as powerful as ever. Raveness, in response to all this, drew a small dagger from her suit and prepared to defend herself. This didn't last long however, Mitsuhide swiped at her weapon faster then I think I've ever seen someone fight, and Raveness's weapon flew out of her hand. In an instant he seized her. He held her arms behind her back, and his hand was over her mouth.

"Let go of her now! And maybe I won't rip ALL your limps off!" I yelled angrily.

"Idle threats from a weak fool...Although I suppose I should at least thank you. To think that I would find one out here wandering around. You've saved me the trouble of having to hunt down one more...And now only one is missing." Mitsuhide said, looking over Raveness.

"I don't know what the hell your talking about! And personally I don't care anymore!" I said.

I raised my katana once more and charged at Mitsuhide. He hiked Raveness up over his shoulder, and jumped away. I chased after him, yet he continued jumping away quickly from my strikes, as Raveness screamed in fear. This process continued about ten times before Mitsuhide finally hopped up onto a large branch of a tree.

"As much as I would love to stay here and continue humiliating you. I should get this woman back to my lord. I bid thee adieu!" Mitsuhide said, before hopping off to through the tree-tops.

(Oh no you don't!) I thought, as I gave chase through the woods. I didn't care if Mitsuhide was faster then me, there was no way in hell I was letting him get away with whatever sick and twisted plan he and his "lord" had planned. And soon enough, as I expected the sound of Mitsuhide's retreat, and the sound of Raveness screaming for help, slowly grew faint until finally they disappeared.

Determined to get to the bottom of this, and to save Raveness. I charged on, in the direction I'd seem them going last. I would find their castle. And there would be hell to pay when I did!

12:30 P.M. 6/12

And the plot gets thicker……


	17. Chapter 15

Well everybody it's been a while. I could blame the long wait, on my extremely busy schedule. I had SAT's I had to take, finals in school, my sister got married, not to mention some personnel issues with friends. I admit, my writing time got heavily reduced.

But I can't lie. It's mostly my lack of motivation to finish this thing. Anyways, this chapter is the beginning of the climax of this story. Enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything mentioned in this story. If I did I would be living it up in my mansion instead of spending my time in front of a computer typing.

_Note: This chapter was written by my friend Brenden. Also in light of future chapters, the rating of this story has been bumped up to M. _

**Chapter 15**

Rikku

10:25 P.M. 6/11

Up in the Celsius, Yuna, Paine, and I were shining light where necessary in order to help our friends fight Nobunaga's cronies. Yuna and Paine were fine... But me? Not so much. Blame my fear of storms. When I was a kid, my brother accidentally blasted me with a lightning attack. It scarred me. Anyways...

I was scared to death, nearly crying, but I knew my friends were risking their lives out there, and me crying wouldn't help them at all. I felt it deep inside me, and I managed to get up, and go over to the window where Yunie and Paine were.

They were a bit surprised, but I just said "I'm okay."

They understood, and I started watching the battle, trying to ignore the booms and zaps from the storm.

"We're so high up. It's hard to tell who's who." said Yuna

"All the Genma look the same. It's our guys that are all unique." said Paine

I remained silent, watching all the carnage and fighting way down below. It was frightening, not only because of the storm, but also because of the fact that my friends could be dying down beneath me.

My eye was drawn to a big turtle guy with a spiky shell. I saw him breathing fire in the woods, and I wondered how exactly he was doing it with all this blood pouring down. I saw a few others with him, and I recognized that one of them was Meta! I saw them all fighting Genma, and doing really well.

"Ok! Keiji says we've held Nobunaga's forces off long enough. All forces are to take the offensive now. Push them back into the woods, and if you see Nobunaga, take him out!" I heard a voice in my head say.

It was Mewtwo, and he was giving the order to attack. I looked down, and saw Genma running deeper into the forest, with our friends chasing after them. Me and Yunie cheered, and I saw Paine smile.

"We're winning!" I shouted with glee.

Then there was an explosion.

"What was that?!" yelled Paine.

I looked down, and saw some of our allies getting blown through the air. I gasped, realizing that it was a trap. They were hurt, bad, and I became worried... (Nobunaga planned this!) I thought, (He lured us deeper into the forest and then ambushed us!)

As soon as that thought came across my mind, I saw many of our allies getting ambushed, struggling to hold off the fearsome assault from Nobunaga's ambush units. Yunie gasped, and I myself was very worried.

"What if they get killed?!" I said frantically.

"I-I don't know... I wish we could help more..." said Yuna

"We can." said Paine sternly

"Paine, no. We can't go down there. They need us here in the Celsius" said Yuna.

"Brother can take over for us..." I said, somewhat pleadingly.

Yuna was quiet for a bit, thinking on what action to take. She looked at Paine, then at me. She then sighed.

"Alright. Tell Brother." she said

"OK!" I said, somewhat happily.

I shouted at Brother in Al Bhed, who was on the other side of the control room.

"Brother! Lyh oui dyga ujan vun ic? Fa fyhd du ku ramb vekrd!"

10:40 P.M. 6/11

He nodded, and landed the Celsius. The three of us quickly left, and Brother took off again, providing support with the Celsius. We quickly took out our weapons, and took off, looking for our friends, so we could help them.

We decided to split up, in order to help more people. Yuna stayed near the Mansion, in case any of our allies was retreating and needed assistance. I went into the first chunk of the forest, so I could help people getting ambushed. Paine went REALLY deep into the forest, because she wanted to take out Nobunaga.

I immediately saw some people struggling. It was girl in a red armored suit, and a swordsman with spiky hair and red armor. I recognized the girl, her name was Samus, but I didn't know who the guy was. They were getting ambushed and struggling, so I took out a grenade and threw it at the Genma crowd. A good chunk of them were blown away.

I waved my arms.

"Hurry! Get back to the Mansion before more arrive!" I shouted.

They obliged, and retreated. Yunie would be able to help them the rest of the way.

I started worrying for Paine, but I pressed on. I saw the turtle guy from before surrounded on all sides. I could tell he was weak from fighting, and I quickly sprung into action. I dashed forward and stabbed the first Genma I saw in the back of the head with one of my daggers. The turtle guy saw me, and I could tell he was thankful for the aid. He squished a few of them by stomping on them, and I threw a couple more grenades at the crowd. The group fell back, and the turtle guy ran away.

"You're welcome!" I said, kinda sarcastically.

"SHADDUP!" I heard him shout back.

"Jerk..." I said, crossing my arms.

I ran further in, looking for more people. I didn't see or hear anyone fighting, so I decided to take a quick break. I leaned up against a

tree and caught my breath, when I got attacked by some guy with long black hair. He wasn't a Genma, but he wasn't on my side. He came lunging at me, and I gasped. I ducked, hoping to dodge, when I suddenly heard the sound of metal clanging together. I looked up, and saw an axe blocking the man's sword. I looked at my savior, and saw it was Meta!

"Meta!" I shouted happily.

"Not now!" He said, pushing the man away.

"Hmph. More than I bargained for. I'll get you two later ." The man said, running off into the night.

I looked up at Meta and smiled sweetly. "Thank you for saving me."

"Uh-huh, sure." he said, kinda awkwardly. "Look, we need to take these things out."

"I know... But we should help the others first. I saw them getting ambushed by bad guys." I replied

He was silent for a moment, eyeing me.

"Aren't you supposed to be up in the ship?" he asked, suspicious.

I blushed, embarrassed for whatever reason.

"Um... Yeah... But I couldn't just sit around and watch my friends die!" I said.

He shrugged and helped me get back up on my feet. He looked tired, and I could tell he was trying to hide it.

"Meta, you should get some rest. You look weak." I said worriedly.

"I'm fine! I'm just pissed at these bastards!" He replied sharply.

I frowned. "Fine..."

For a second there, he seemed sorry for making me frown, but he shook his head, made his axe turn into a trident, and ran off, wanting to fight some more.

"Hey wait!!" I said, but it was too late. He was gone.

"Dang..." I said, hoping he'd be alright.

"Just got word from the Celsius. The Genma have vanished. Nobunaga's nowhere to be found. All units, return to the Mansion. Get the wounded in beds, and get the healers up and ready." Mewtwo's voice said in my head again.

Mewtwo had been told by Brother that Nobunaga left. Worried for my friends and Meta, I started walking back to the mansion. A few people passed me, looking injured, and I just watched them walk ahead.

11:20 P.M. 6/11

Later on, almost everyone was back in the foyer of the Mansion, ready for a debriefing. Everyone was chattering about the battle that had occurred, sharing things they saw or hints they came up with. Keiji stepped up on a small stage, and everyone went quiet. Hanzo appeared behind him, and Keiji cleared his throat.

"Riiiiight... Things didn't exactly go smoothly." He said glumly.

"Nobunaga's a tricky one. He got our hopes up and then shot them down with cleverly placed ambushes. Lot of you guys got hurt, and I got some bad news... I'll let Hanzo be the bearer of it." Keiji said, stepping down.

Hanzo stepped up.

"There have been casualties." he said monotonously.

The crowd buzzed, chattering again. Hanzo waited patiently while they hushed down.

"Several men and woman perished. We don't have exact names, or an exact number of how many died so I'll leave it to you to find out who." He said.

Some jeers rose, but quickly died down. I was frantic. Many thoughts rushed through my mind. Who died? Who lived? Who's hurt? What happened to them? I felt dizzy, almost sick with worry, and I quickly went to my room. I lied down, and cried.

About 15 minutes later, I heard a knock at my door.

"Rikku? May we come in?"

"Yeah. Come in." I said, teary-eyed.

Yuna and Meta Knight walked inside. I was relieved to know they were okay, but I was still worried for everyone else, especially Paine...

"Are you alright?" asked Yuna.

I shook my head no. "Uh-uh"

Yuna sat down on the bed and stroked my hair. "You're worried for everyone, aren't you?"

I nodded

"We all are... I'm just glad to know you're safe." she said.

Meta walked over.

"So.. Uh... How you feeling?" Meta asked.

"Sick..." I said

"Oh... alright..." He replied.

I was a bit confused at his behavior, but I put it off.

"Where's Paine?" I asked after a moment's silence.

I could tell it was the wrong thing to ask. Yuna looked away, sadness in her eyes. Meta was quiet.

"We don't know... We haven't seen her..." Said Yuna after a couple minutes.

"What...?" I said.

"I'm sorry Rikku... B-but... I think she was killed..." said Yuna slowly and quietly.

My eyes widened and my heart leaped up into my throat. Tears came to my eyes, and I felt a fiery sensation in my chest.

"D-d-dead?...No..." I said, on the verge of crying.

"We don't know if she is or not Rikku." said Meta, breaking his silence.

"That's right! She might be okay." said Yuna. "...Look Rikku, tomorrow I'm going to hold a performance for those who were lost in the battle earlier. I'm hoping it will raise everyone's spirits, even if it's just slightly."

"Ok Yunie... I'll be there." I said.

Meta went quiet again and left the room. Yuna put her hand on my forehead.

"See you tomorrow... And try not to worry about Paine." she said. She kissed my forehead, and then left.

After the door closed, I let the tears flow. I cried and cried, and soon, I fell asleep.

7:00 A.M. 6/12

The next morning, I woke up, my pillow wet from all the crying I must've done. I sat up in bed, sniffled, and looked out the window. It was still raining blood. I wiped my moist eyes, and got out of the bed. I felt like I was in a haze... Nothing seemed 100 clear like it usually did, and everything just felt dull and lifeless. I coasted along in the hallway and saw I wasn't alone in this haze of despair. A lot of other people looked depressed, worried, and sick.

I saw a girl in a pink dress with white gloves in the kitchen, at the table. Her head was in her arms, and it looked like she was sobbing. I looked into the living room, and saw several people sitting there in complete silence, their eyes listless and dull. There were people wandering the halls aimlessly, lost in their thoughts. But no matter how many faces I saw, they all looked the same: Frightened, worried, or sad.

I started back towards my room, to try to clear my head some more when I noticed some kind of commotion going on in the living room. Curious, I walked in, to see Keiji and Hanzo once again standing on their small stage.

"What's going on?" A woman asked.

"There's something you all need to see..." Hanzo said.

He stepped down off of the stage, and walked over to a window, pulling it's curtain down. Outside of the window, was a large red hole in the sky. It was above the woods behind this mansion. (What is that?...) I thought as I gazed at it.

"It seems everything about the legend is true after all... That is the portal to Zodiac's dimension... It's increased drastically in size. Last night you couldn't see it with the naked eye."

"So what does this mean?..." Someone else asked.

"It means we're running out of time...We have an estimated 6 hours remaining before the portal opens up completely... Keiji and I are plotting an attack... If this one doesn't work... Well to be on the safe side you might wanna go ahead and say all your good-byes." Hanzo said calmly.

Everyone that was present in the room's spirits sank. Keiji and Hanzo walked out, to leave us to our misery and I continued my trip back to my room in an even more depressed mood. But then another sad thought crossed my mind.

...Out of all the faces I'd seen today...Not one of them belonged to Paine. She wasn't in the mansion, and she was deep in the forest last night when the battle was raging. I felt ill, and was forced to sit down in a nearby chair. My head felt like it was buzzing, and I felt like I was going to throw up. I was really dizzy for a moment, and then I blacked out. I passed out right in that chair.

I awoke about 30 minutes later in my room to Meta Knight shaking me.

"Wake up!" He said. "Yuna is about to perform."

I was groggy, confused. I looked at him, and then I realized what he had said. I looked around the room, then I got up and wandered into the halls. Meta followed me, confused at my behavior.

I didn't see anyone in the halls. I looked out a window, and saw the Celsius right by the mansion. There was a huge crowd gathered around it, and I saw Yunie on top of it.

"Yunie!" I shouted, running into the hallway, down the stairs and out of the mansion and up to the Celsius.

8:00 A.M. 6/12

I fought through the crowd, and climbed up to a spot far enough behind her to where I wouldn't get in the way. She saw me climb up, and smiled at me. I smiled too, and then she turned back to the crowd, speaking into a microphone.

"We've all been hurt by everything that the Demon King has done. This rain is further dampening our spirits and furvor... I want to dedicate this song to every last one of you. No matter what you all might think, you aren't alone in this. We all have the same problem. And to those who aren't with us today... Those who are now in a better place... I dedicate this to your memories as well." said Yuna.

The murmuring of the crowd died down, as some soft music began playing.

Thunder roared and lightning crackled as the rain poured down on the audience. The soft music got a little louder. It was pretty, and the whole crowd was silent. I heard Yuna take a breath, and she started singing.

"_I know that you're hiding things, using gentle words to shelter me. Your words were like a dream. But dreams could never fool me... Not that easily_" she sang, with grace and beauty.

The music picked up a little bit, and she continued

"_I acted so distant then, didn't say goodbye before you left. But I was listening. You'll fight your battles far from me... Far too easily_"

The song picked up a little more, and the Celsius's holographic display activated. The image of a cityscape appeared all around us, with the crowd and the Celsius seeming to glide along in it. Yuna continued.

" _...Save your tears, cause I'll come back... I could hear that you whispered as you walked through that door. But still I swore..._"

Then something weird happened... Yunie's Songstress dress sphere glowed blue and interfered with the holographic display.

"_To hide the pain when I turned back the pages! Shouting might've been the answer._"

The display changed from a city and into fire for a moment. When the fire dissipated, there was a large robot thing. It looked kinda like an elephant. There was a man with spiky hair standing near the machine.

"_What if I cryed my eyes out and begged you not to depart? But now I'm not afraid to say what's in my heart!_"

Then something even weirder happened...Yunie changed. She vanished, and some girl who looked like her, but had longer hair appeared, dressed in the same outfit as Yuna, singing the song. The music picked up, and the man in the display hit something. Some lights flared up, and the girl kept singing.

"_Cause a 1000 words, call out through the ages. They'll fly to you, even though I can't see I know they're reaching you... Suspended on silver wings!_"

The man continued messing with the machine. A display of the girl who looked like Yuna ran to the man, yelling something at him. I think she was asking him to stop messing with the robot. He ran up to her, and all of a sudden, the images of several men with guns ran into the room with the two of them. The girl looked scared, and the man held her in his arms. The singing continued, seemingly in the background of the scene that everyone was watching.

"_Oh a 1000 words, 1000 embraces. Will cradle you..._"

The men with guns all aimed at the two.

"_Making all of your weary days seem far away! They'll haunt you foreeeeeeeever!_"

A soft guitar solo began, and the two looked into each others eyes, crying. The men with guns were about to fire. The girl let out a small smile at the man, and he returned the smile. Suddenly, the men with guns fired, and the two fell to the ground, wounded.

Then another strange thing happened. The girl kept singing, but Yuna suddenly appeared behind her, singing with her. While they were singing, the image of the girl and the man who were shot were looking into each others' dying eyes.

The girl sang. "_Oh one thousand words_"

Yuna sang "_A thousand words..._"

The girl again "_Have never been spoken_"

Then Yunie "_Ohhh_"

Their pattern of singing back and forth continued.

"_They'll fly to you and carry you home..._"

"_Carry you home!_"

"_...and back into my arms!_"

"_Suspended on silver wiiings!_"

"_On silver wings!_"

"_And a thousand words_"

"_Ohhh_"

"_Call out through the ages._"

"_Call through the ages!_"

"_They'll cradle you!_"

"_Ohh yeah_"

"_Making all of your lonely years into only days_"

"_Only days!_"

As the girl sang that, she started to dissipate while Yuna continued

Right before Yuna sang again, the whole holographic display vanished, bringing all of us back to the glum, depressing world we were in. But something was different...The thunder and lightning were distant... The rain had stopped... And the sun was shining for the first time in a while.

"_They'll haunt you foreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeever!! Ohhhhhhh... A thousaaaand. Wooooords._" Yuna sang as the song ended.

The crowd was completely silent, awestruck by the song and awestruck that the storm had stopped. Yuna gazed out at the audience, and fell to her knees, some tears falling from her eyes. I quickly ran up to her, and the crowd below started clapping.

"Yunie..." I said softly

"I'll be okay." she said, getting back up.

I stood up with her, and looked out at the cheering crowd. Yuna bowed to them, and I smiled, waving my arms. She rose back up, and spoke into her microphone once the applause died.

"Thank you all very much for coming. I know this performance helped... And knowing that it helped makes me feel happy. Thank you." she said, blowing a kiss.

The two of us went back into the Celsius. She sat down in a chair, and I sat in another chair near her.

"That was really touching and sweet..." I said to her.

"Thanks..." she replied

"But I still don't quite understand... Why'd your dress sphere glitch up the Celsius's hologram?" I asked

"I'm not sure myself... But when that girl appeared and sang with me... It felt right. Like I had known her for years or something..." Yunie said.

I was a bit puzzled, but I spoke again, realizing the possible reason for the glitch.

"Ya know... They say that all Spheres have some trace of their previous owner left within them. Maybe that girl was the spirit of the last person who had your Songstress dress sphere." I explained.

"Makes sense..." Yuna said.

"Yeah... That seems right." she said, smiling.

I smiled, but then she seemed to go deep into thought. After a moment, she looked up at me.

"Lenne" she said.

"Huh? Lenne?" I replied.

"The girl... Her name is Lenne" she said.

I was confused, but I shrugged and smiled, deciding not to press the matter anymore. I spoke to Yuna again.

"I'm sure your audience would like to speak with you Yunie. We should head back to the Mansion."

"Alright." she said, kinda quietly.

The two of us got up, and left the Celsius. The crowd had already dispersed and headed back into the Mansion.

8:30 A.M. 6/12

As I figured, people ran up to us as soon as we came in, thanking Yuna and what not. Soon everyone was called into a living room once more, where Keiji and Hanzo were in their now common spot on the small stage. Once everyone arrived, Keiji called Yuna up onto the platform with him and Hanzo. She complied and stepped up and waved to everyone once more, producing an enormous cheer.

"Di-did I really help that much?..." Yuna stuttered, embarassed from the attention she was getting.

"Help out? Lady. You just saved the world!" Keiji exclaimed.

"I-I did?" Yuna asked.

"See for yourself!" Keiji said, motioning towards Hanzo.

Hanzo walked over, and opened the same curtain from the same window from an hour ago. I gazed out once more. The red hole was still there in the sky...But it was a little bit smaller. The blood rain was nowhere to be found, and the sun was shining bright.

"We're not quite sure why. But for some reason, your song made the blood rain stop. No rain, means the portal to Zodiac's dimension can't get any bigger. Not only that, without the rain the portal will only get smaller and smaller." Hanzo said walking back to his spot.

"See? No portal means no Zodiac. You just saved the world!" Keiji said happily.

"Wo-wow...I don't know what to say..." said Yuna.

The crowd cheered once more, happily and a party was planned tonight to celebrate it.

Hearing all this, and getting in a much better mood. I went into my room, and relaxed for awhile until I heard someone knocking.

"Rikku? You in there?" I heard someone ask.

"Yeah, come in." I said.

Meta walked into the room, I smiled.

"Hiya Meta Knight." I said cheerfully

"Hi." He said.

"Look, I'm bored out of my mind. Wanna go for a walk or something?" He asked

I was a bit surprised, and I replied after a brief delay.

"Uh... You mean, like a date?" I said, blushing a bit.

"Er... I guess...If that's what you want to call it...I mean... I was just gonna call it a...err..." he said, obviously embarrased.

I thought for a moment, and decided to go. I didn't really have anything better to do.

"Sure!" I said, smiling and giggling at his embarassment.

"Really? Okay then. What do you want to do?" he asked.

"A walk's good" I said.

He nodded, and the two of us walked outside. It was nice to actually see the sun for once, instead of a torrent of blood. Though... Some things were still stained a bit. It looked kinda creepy, but I just went with it.

10:00 A.M. 6/12

We walked into the forest near the mansion, and followed a wilderness path through it. We walked for a little while, and stopped when we came across a pond

"Hmm..." I said.

"What?" he asked

I grinned, and pushed him into the water. He cried out and I laughed. I jumped in after him, since my outfit is waterproof, and swam around, laughing.

"What was that for?!" I heard him yell when he surfaced.

I stuck my tongue out.

"Just having fun." I said, laughing again.

I splashed him with some of the water, and he laughed a bit, and got out to remove his armor before hopping back in.

The two of us swam around for an hour or two, dunking and splashing each other until we got tired. We got out, and sat by the lake, letting the air dry us off.

"It's pretty..." I said after a moment's silence

"Yeah..." Meta said.

" I meant the lake you know." I said smiling at him.

"I did too!" Meta replied, embarassed once more.

I giggled and hugged him.

"Ok. What have I told you about the hugging?!" Meta said, struggling to get out of the hug.

I simply laughed and didn't let go.

"You know what? Forget it.." Meta said, giving up the struggle.

I laughed harder and set him back down. Things were looking good again. Noone was sad anymore, my cousin saved the world, and Meta was acting like less of a jerk everyday. He was even starting to become...Fun to be around. The extreme sadness I felt this morning, now seemed like a far-off memory.

We looked at the lake for a bit more, and then I got up.

"We should head back to the Mansion. The others might be wondering where we're at." I said.

Meta Knight nodded, and got up. We started walking back to the Mansion.

12: 40 P.M. 6/12

About 30 minutes later, we showed up at the mansion. The place was in an uproar! People were running around, panicking, and Meta and I were confused.

I saw a little man with a mushroom-hat on his head. He was wearing a vest and white pants. He was frantically running back and forth. I grabbed him, and looked him in the eye.

"What's going on here?" I asked

"S-s-some guy with long black hair and purple armor attacked the Mansion! He grabbed a bunch of girls and ran off into the forest, muttering something about a sacrificial ceremony!" the little man said.

"Who got kidnapped?!" I asked, almost yelling.

"Th-the girl who just sang earlier, Peach, Zelda, Samus and a few other ladies. He said.

My eyes widened with fear. Yuna had been kidnapped by the guy that attacked me last night! Not only that, but he wanted to sacrifice her in some kind of ceremony...

"What are Keiji and Hanzo doing?!" I said, officially yelling this time.

"Coming up with a plan. They recognized the man and he works for Nobunaga." He said.

I let go of the man, and he ran off. I turned around and faced Meta. I looked him in the eye, and he simply nodded, knowing that I wanted to track this guy down.

"We have to save her..." I said.

Meta nodded again, and we ran back to the forest, trying to find the man who took Yunie. We ran and ran for quite awhile, until we came across a clearing. Meta motioned for us to stop, and he drew his sword. He walked into the clearing slowly, as if expecting an ambush or something. Sure enough, once he walked in far enough, the man with long hair and purple armor busted out of the trees and attacked!

1:30 P.M. 6/12

I gasped, but Meta managed to avoid the lightning-fast slash the man delivered. The man stood there for a moment, then spoke.

"I'm assuming you chose to pursue me because you have a death wish." He said coldly and quietly.

"No, we came to kick your ass!" Yelled Meta as he dashed forward at the man.

"Hmph" the man grunted as he sidestepped and punted Meta into a nearby tree.

"Attempting to fight Mitsuhide Akechi will get you killed. I suggest you flee now, while your limbs are still intact..." He said.

So his name was Mitsuhide... I felt anger boiling up inside me, and I quickly drew my daggers and dashed at him, swinging wildly. He seemed to have no problem dodging all of my attacks, and before I knew it, he bashed me in the stomach with the hilt of his sword. I heard Meta cry out and I saw him fly down from the tree, full speed, at Mitsuhide.

I coughed up some saliva after getting bashed in the gut. I fell to my knees, clutching my stomach, the wind knocked out of me. I heard metal clanging together. I looked up, and saw Meta Knight swinging really fast at Mitsuhide with an axe. And once more, Mitsuhide dodged every single blow. He was way too fast for us...

"WHERE'S YUNA?!" Meta screamed, still attacking him.

"Yuna? Oh, you must mean one of the maidens my lord wanted." Mitsuhide replied, all too calm and cool.

(Maidens?) I thought.

"Maidens?! What the hell are you gonna do with them?!" Meta yelled, continuing his assault.

"You see," Mitsuhide said, still avoiding Meta Knight's attacks. "Nobunaga is a bit angry that the blood rain was stopped. So seeing as how we were foiled, we decided to go with the back-up plan..."

"Bac-back-up plan?" I stuttered, still catching my breath.

" As long as the portal is still up in the sky, we can perform the sacrificial rite...And bring Zodiac to this planet ourselves!"

"Your not making any sense!" Meta said, not backing down on his attack.

" Simple minded fool... 12 women... That's how many it will take to open up the portal completely. All we have to do is capture them, and sacrifice them a certain way...And the portal to the Destroyer's Dimension will open still. And my master's ambition will still be completed... That's it in a nut-shell. Figures I'd have to spell it out for such a stupid creature as yourself..." Mitsuhide said, not missing a step avoiding Meta.

"SHUT UP!" Meta yelled, taking a mighty swing.

Mitsuhide ducked under it, and stabbed upwards. I gasped as Mitsuhide's katana came into contact with Meta Knight. He fell to the ground, wounded, and then Mitsuhide turned to me, a menacing gleam in his eye. I was still on my knees, trying to catch my breath.

"But we did run into a problem... Where we were gonna get the women... But what better place, then the little house of miscreants, that defied us earlier? But due to some minor miscalculations... We only ended up with 10... Fortunely, we happened upon some insects wandering a little bit too close, and got one more... Now there's only one more left, and I just happened to remember a certain girl and a small puffball I ran into the other night..." Mitsuhide said, eyeing me over.

(No...) I thought, realizing what was about to happen.

"Rikku! Run!" I heard Meta Knight say.

I turned to look at him and saw him get up and charge Mitsuhide again, a giant gap in his mask from where he'd been hit earlier. I made a dash for the direction of the Mansion, when I suddenly felt something hit me in the head. I was knocked unconscious almost instantly.

?:?? 6/12

I woke up a few hours later. I didn't know exactly how long though. I couldn't move... I was tied up to a wall by my wrists and feet, and there was a gag in my mouth. My head was pounding, and I felt really dizzy. I tried to look around, but ended up noticing something first...I wasn't in my normal clothes anymore. I was in some sort of a gown... It was white, and it went all the way down past my feet, covering them up. There were no sleeves on it...And I didn't even have a bra or anything on under it...As disturbing as this fact was, plus my pounding head, I continued to look around.

We were in what looked like some sort of medieval prison cell. It was very dark, dimly lit by a torch on one wall. There weren't any windows anywhere, and the only other light was coming from a lamp of some sort on the ceiling outside the cell, which was also quite dim. Outside of the cell were two large tables, each with 4 shackles in their corners. There was some sort of object on the far table, but I couldn't see what is was. Between the two tables, was some sort of grating in the floor. And there was a couple of levers of some sort on the far wall. But most noticeably of all, there was a putrid smell. I don't think I've ever smelled anything as bad as this prison...But I tried to shrug it off and looked around the cell more.

I saw 11 other girls all tied up in the same way as me, despite the small size of the cell we were all in.. They even all had the same gown on as I did. I looked at all of them and saw Yuna! But she was unconscious... Then I saw Paine... I would've sighed with relief if I wasn't gagged. Unfortunly she too wasn't conscious.

9 other girls were in there too. Only one of them was awake however, and we didn't try communicating. There was a girl with long black hair and an eye patch over her eye. Then I saw a woman with a tiara, and long blonde hair. I recognized her from the mansion, she was crying at the kitchen table earlier. There was another girl with long blond hair but she had pointy ears. I saw another with blonde hair but it was tied back in a ponytail. She seemed familiar for some reason, but I wasn't sure why...

There were still other women. One had long blue hair. There was another blue-haired girl next to her, but she had a big bow of some sort in her hair.

I looked around some more... There was a another girl with brown hair, and there was a red bow in it. There was another girl beside her. Her hair was long and dark brown. There was one last girl tied up... She had long white hair, yet she wasn't old. She also had a long blue ribbon in her hair.

The only ones awake were the girl with the eye patch, and me. I felt scared, alone, worried... Mitsuhide had explained the ritual, before I was knocked out...Were these girls already dead? Was Meta okay? Are these other girls okay? Am I gonna be okay...?

All those questions were racing in my mind, when I heard an annoying voice call out.

"Hey Mitsuhide! One of em is awake!" he said.

I looked over at the bars between us and the room with the tables, and saw a scrawny looking man in yellow armor. He had a tri-nunchaku with him. Mitsuhide walked up beside him, and they both looked at me. I glanced over at the girl with the eye-patch. She wasn't moving! Her eyes were closed! But she was awake a minute ago! (She must be faking being unconscious...) I thought, as I looked back at Mitsuhide so as too not cast suspicion on the other girl who was really awake.

"Ah yes, the girl who was with the puffball. The last one I brought here, and the first to wake up...How ironic..." Mitsuhide said.

"My my, she's a pretty one." said the scrawny man.

"Enough Hideyoshi, you're a married man." said Mitsuhide.

"Oh I know, but can't a guy gawk every now and then?" said the scrawny man known as Hideyoshi.

Mitsuhide sighed. "Yes but must you comment on them all, while you were dressing them in the garbs?... Just leave the women alone. Nobunaga wants them in good health for the sacrificial rite." he said.

"Yeah yeah, I know." said Hideyoshi, still looking at me. "Hm... I'll come back to enjoy the view later. I've got business to attend to!" he said, leaving the room.

( THAT GUY, put this thing on me...Disgusting!...) I thought as Hideyoshi left.

Mitsuhide continued to stare for a little while longer, until a monster, some kind of Genma, came into the room. It mumbled something...But I couldn't hear him, but Mitsuhide flipped.

"WHAT?!... Sniveling insects!" Mitsuhide yelled angrily.

He turned back to face me.

"I will return momentarily ladies. Once I get back, the ritual will begin... Whether your conscious or not..." Mitsuhide said, walking out of the room.

I looked back at the girl with the eye patch and watched her stir. She opened her eyes once more and looked at me, she'd somehow managed to get her gag loose and she let it drop to the floor.

"Ugh..." she said.

I looked over at her once more, and she looked up at me. That was when I realized something. I'd seen this girl before. Just yesterday in fact! When Meta battled the scary purple guy in the woods. She was with him! I remembered it well from how scared I had been at that moment, when he had captured me. He called her Raveness, and she was just as scared as I was right now.

"Well... Things aren't exactly looking good...Rikku wasn't it?.." She said quietly.

I nodded my head.

"I wish I could say this was a good reunion...But I don't think I could even if we weren't trapped here right now... But now isn't the time to argue. We have to find a way to get out of here." Raveness said

I nodded once more and let out a muffled sigh, and looked at the ground, becoming lost in thought... Try as I might, I couldn't think of anyway to get out of here... And what had happened to Meta? Was he alright...Was he alive?... (No! This is defiantly not a good time to have thoughts like that..) I thought. Through quick thinking, Meta Knight had already saved my life twice now... Would he be able to do it now?...

(Come save me...Please...) I thought, as I stared hopelessly at the ground.

?:?? 6/12


End file.
